Cadets of the Valery Khalilov Moscow Military Music College Returned from a Big Concert Tour around Switzerland

Yesterday, September 30, cadets of the Moscow Military Music College named after Lieutenant General Valery Khalilov returned from their big concert tour around Switzerland. From September 20 to 30, our young and talented musicians, headliners of the Spasskaya Tower International Military Music Festival, were conquering audiences’ hearts all across the country.

September 20, the cadet band led by Mikhail Melnik gave start to the annual Suvorov Days in Switzerland Festival onstage of the Paderewski Hall in Lausanne. Mr. Sergey Garmonin, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of Russia to Switzerland, and Mr. Frederik Paulsen, Honorary Consul General of Russia in Lausanne, were among the concert’s guests of honor.

Held within Russia-Switzerland International Military Cooperation, this year’s celebrations have been dedicated to the 220^th anniversary of the Russian Army crossing the Alps under the lead of General Alexander Suvorov.

Scoring the perfect balance between academic and open-ground concerts, young musicians performed across the whole confederation. They visited both large cities such as Lausanne, Bern, Thun, as well as little villages of Inkwil, Greyzer, Muotathal and others. The band also took part in the annual Tattoo on Stage International Military Music Festival held in Luzern within the bigger World Band Festival.

On September 24, cadets of the fourth college year became part of the solemn wreath laying ceremony to the Monument to Alexander Suvorov and his fallen soldiers next to the Devil’s Bridge in the Schöllenen Gorge. The event featured participation of Swiss and Russian officials including Mr. Sergey Garmonin, Russian Ambassador to Switzerland, Mr. Gennady Gatilov, Permanent Representative of the Russian Federation to the United Nations Office and other International Organizations in Geneva, and Major General Lucas Caduff, Commander of the Third Territorial Division of the Swiss Armed Forces.

Every year the Embassy of the Russian Federation in Switzerland together with the country’s officials, representatives of the Swiss society and Russian fellow nationals based abroad hold a series of solemn events dedicated to the heroic march of General Alexander Suvorov across the snow-covered Alps in September of 1799.

Since 1998 cadets of the Valery Khalilov Moscow Military Music College have had the honor to become the permanent participant of these state solemn events and military ceremonies.