Moscow Jazz Orchestra to Travel to China at End of Year, Butman Says

MOSCOW, August 3 The Moscow Jazz Orchestra will go to China at the end of the year, and the band also plans to create joint programs with Chinese performers, the orchestra’s director, People’s Artist, said in an interview Russian artist Igor Butman.
«We have many plans and a great desire to establish cultural exchange. In December, we are planning another trip to China, to Hong Kong. Although December is already very eventful for us, we will go. I have been and performed several times in Shanghai, we performed in Beijing. Just recently, we performed there in a jazz club, played with our orchestra. So we are going there, we are looking at which of the Chinese jazz musicians we can do some joint programs with,» he shared.

According to Butman, there is already one program with a musician from Beijing, who performs under the pseudonym Abu. The Chinese performer has already visited Russia and performed at International Jazz Days.
«We played the music of Nikolai Kapustin, a very popular Russian composer in China and Japan. He is a Soviet-Russian composer, all his works are jazz in intonations, jazz in improvisation… We played several concerts with Kapustin's music with this wonderful pianist Abu. We hope that we will play again. We have plans for this,» the jazzman shared.

Among other countries promising for creative cooperation, Butman noted Brazil, Indonesia, Tunisia, Thailand and Turkey. It is also possible to maintain good relations with some representatives of unfriendly countries.
«»Foreign musicians come to us. Although they live in America, they performed at the festival in Moscow: for example, Richard Bona, he is from Cameroon, lives in Miami. Avishai Cohen is from Israel, he also tours a lot… Gonzalo Rubalcaba lives between Cuba and Florida, often performs all over the world… Now American guitarist Mark Whitfield has said that he does not plan to take public opinion into account and will do what he wants, and wants to come to Russia,” the jazzman added.
Read the full text of the interview with Igor Butman>>