The Extreme Classics Show definitely became the most courageous event of the Universiade cultural programme. Vladimir Lande, the Chief Conductor of the Krasnoyarsk Academic Symphony Orchestra, spoke about the value and role of the music and sports experiment.

For two nights of the Winter Universiade 2019, the Grand Concert Hall turned into an arena for extreme sports. Traceurs, acrobats, BMX bike riders and roller skaters gave their performance to the accompaniment of the symphony orchestra. Vladimir Lande, the Chief Conductor of the Krasnoyarsk Academic Symphony Orchestra, spoke about the value and role of the music and sports experiment.

"The Krasnoyarsk Symphony Orchestra had been preparing for the Winter Universiade 2019 for quite a long period during which we discovered a new area of interaction with those who were engaged and interested in sports. That was how the Extreme Classics project was made, a creative experiment with extreme athletes performing tricks to the orchestral accompaniment.

The project had been prepared for many years. We first presented its sketch version in 2016. After that we had been gradually refining the show to make for the Winter Universiade 2019 the one that would tell the spectators about Krasnoyarsk and the region. Viktor Vysotsky, a director from St. Petersburg, who has an experience in staging performances for the Mariinsky Theatre, helped us to make this show. As a result, Extreme Classics Show became a grand event combining many athletes, the orchestra, the scenery and the structures for the tricks, some of which were of enormous size.

A huge positive aspect of this project is that thanks to it we have expanded our audience. We used fragments from the most serious works of Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Grieg, which, as a rule, were performed in our halls for the lovers of classical music. But now this music has caught the interest of young people. The athletes who worked with us and their friends enjoy quite serious concerts of ours, and for us this was an interesting, useful and valuable experience. Some athletes even come to our rehearsals, the process has fascinated them so much. At the same time, it was not less interesting for the orchestra artists to get acquainted with extreme sports, to see how the guys are training, to familiarize themselves with this culture full of risk.

The Winter Universiade 2019, as well as the preparation for the Games had only positive side. The merit of the event is that it provoked a powerful positive energy boost, and now it is important not to lose this energy. In this sense, the result of the event is invaluable, and I think we will continue to study and discuss it for long time yet. The volunteers who created the atmosphere, the athletes, our audience – they all had a positive uplift. We have especially felt this, because the performing skills become the art when the energy we send to the hall generates a response wave, when the spectator listens, understands and necessarily participates."