More than 5 million people became viewers of the Cantata Festival in 2026

The VI International Classical Music Festival "Cantata", which took place from June 12 to 16, has come to an end in the Kaliningrad Region. The total audience of the festival exceeded 5 million people, taking into account online broadcasts that took place exclusively on the VK Video platform. More than 8 thousand spectators attended the concert and educational events of the festival in the Kaliningrad region. The festival program includes 8 concert events at seven venues in the region, as well as more than 30 events of the educational block, organized jointly with the Kaliningrad branch of the State Tretyakov Gallery.

By the end of 2026, 5.03 million rubles were collected from ticket sales, which will be used to preserve cultural heritage sites in the Kaliningrad region. In particular, the funds are planned to be used to complete the restoration of the Gerdauen church in the village of Zheleznodorozhny and the technical equipment of cultural sites in the region.

Thus, the total amount of funds raised by the festival for the preservation of cultural heritage since 2021 has exceeded 14.7 million rubles.

The festival opened on June 12 simultaneously with the All-Russian Classical Music Marathon "Cantata. Russia", which this year united 15 regions of the country, from Kaliningrad to the Far East. The marathon concerts were attended by 25,000 spectators across the country.

The central venue of the Kaliningrad festival was Kanta Island, where a combined orchestra of musicians from the Moscow State Academic Symphony Orchestra and the Kaliningrad Symphony Orchestra performed under the direction of the festival's artistic director Fabio Mastrangelo.

The festival program includes concerts at historical cultural heritage sites of the Kaliningrad region, including Domnau and Gerdauen churches, as well as Neuhausen Castle. One of the new directions of the program was the use of multimedia technologies and digital visual solutions in concert productions, implemented jointly with the Kaliningrad branch of the State Tretyakov Gallery.

The festival ended on June 16 with a gala concert at Tapiau Castle, Gvardeysk. Alexey Besprozvanikh, Governor of the Kaliningrad Region, expressed his sincere gratitude to everyone who brings the International Classical Music Festival "Cantata" to life. The organizers of the festival, the General Producer of the festival and the General Director of the Moscow Academic Musical Theater named after K.S. Stanislavsky and V.I. Nemirovich-Danchenko Andrey Borisov, the Artistic director of the VI International Festival of Classical Music "Cantata" and the Musical Theater named after F.I. Chaliapin Fabio Mastrangelo were awarded special marks of distinction.

Dmitry Shostakovich's Symphony No. 9 and Georgy Sviridov's suite "Time, Forward!" were performed on stage by the Moscow State Academic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Ivan Nikiforchin. On the same day, a joint program with the Moscow Jazz Festival "Classics meets Jazz" took place with the participation of Igor Butman and Oleg Akkuratov.

The VI International Classical Music Festival "Cantata" was held under the motto "Ahead of time" and was timed to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the formation of the Kaliningrad region. The project is being implemented with the support of the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives.

The project is being implemented with the support of the Presidential Foundation for Cultural Initiatives, the Government of the Kaliningrad region, the organizers are ANO "Cantata" and LLC "Lira".