​On January 24, the XVI Winter Surikov Art Festival will host its closing ceremony. This year, a violinist from Florence, Igor Polesitsky, is set to be the special guest of the event.

The programme, which the musician will present together with the Krasnoyarsk Chamber Orchestra, is dedicated to the Italian period of the great Siberian painter.

Works by Gaetano Donizetti, Gioacchino Rossini, Ottorino Respighi and Antonio Vivaldi will be performed at the event. Rossini's Sonata No. 3 for Strings in C Major and Donizetti's String Quartet No. 17 in D Major will be performed for the first time ever in Krasnoyarsk.

The music of Italian classical composers will be accompanied by a display of watercolour works by Vasily Surikov, which the artist painted during his travels in Italy.

During his lifetime, our renowned countryman was able to visit Rome, Florence, Milan, Naples, Venice, where he studied the work of Raphael, Titian and Tintoretto. This influenced the colouring techniques that the artist used when creating his art.

Igor Polesitsky is already familiar to the Krasnoyarsk public. He has twice taken part in the Asia-Siberia-Europe Festival: in 2019 as a leader and member of the Klezmerata Fiorentina quartet, in 2021 as a conductor and soloist.