Artistic Director of the Astrakhan Opera and Ballet Theater Valery Voronin has joined the jury of the festival-competition of the Russian national award “Golden Mask”

By decision of the Secretariat of the Union of Theater Workers of the Russian Federation, the jury of the competition was approved to determine the Award Winners. The Artistic Director of the Astrakhan Opera and Ballet Theater, the Chief Conductor Valery Voronin joined the jury of the national theater award “Golden Mask”. In 2024, the maestro will be assessing works in the category “Musical Theater (Opera, Operetta/Musical, Ballet).”

The main competition program of the 30th anniversary festival-competition of the Russian National Theater Award “Golden Mask” will take place in February, March and April 2024. For the first time, the nominated performances will be presented not in Moscow, as it has been before, but at theaters in various cities of Russia, for example, in St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Perm, Kazan, Omsk, Petrozavodsk, Pskov, Novokuznetsk, Nyagan, Krasnoyarsk, Yoshkar-Ola, Vladikavkaz, Krasnodar, Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, Khanty-Mansiysk, Cheboksary, Buinsk, Uchma. The award ceremony will be held in Moscow.

Famous and reputable experts, such as artistic directors of theaters, actors, musicians, and teachers are traditionally invited to the jury. The choreographer, professor, head of the Department of Contemporary Choreography and Stage Dance of RATI - GITIS Alla Sigalova; the soloist of the Mariinsky Theater, associate professor of the department of solo singing at the St. Petersburg Conservatory Olga Kondina; the opera singer, the teacher, the soloist of the State Academic Bolshoi Theater of Russia, Associate Professor of the Department of Solo Singing at the Gnessin Russian Academy of Music, the People's Artist of the Russian Federation Irina Dolzhenko; and other experts will join Valery Voronin to assess the works of their colleagues. The stage director and the artistic director of the “Theatrical Art Studio” Sergei Zhenovach has been appointed chairman of the dramatic and puppet performances category; and the chief director of NOVAT Vyacheslav Starodubtsev will preside as the judge in the category of opera productions, musicals and ballets.

Becoming a member of the jury of a national award is public recognition of an expert’s artistic and organizational merits, his talent and personal contribution to the development of theatrical and musical art in Russia.

Ahead of the maestro there are several months of creative trips and meetings with the teams nominated for the most prestigious national theater award.