Press releases

Belarus Events Calendar: MARCH 2021

Dear friends! We are sorry to inform you that we have to change the monthly Events Calendar on the belarus.by website. The coronavirus pandemic has led to border shutdowns, travel restrictions, cancellation or postponement of public events. People are willing to refrain from trips and entertainments to protect themselves and their families.

Belarus is taking all the necessary measures to prevent the spread of the infection. The country has not imposed strict travel restrictions. However, Belarus calls on EVERY PERSON to be extremely careful, follow the WHO and doctors’ recommendations, observe personal hygiene rules, and, most importantly, take care of each other. If you have returned from the worst-hit regions and countries, you should seek medical attention in case of the slightest deterioration in your health and, of course, isolate yourselves as soon as possible, in order not to spread any infection, not only COVID-19.

In view of this situation, large public events are canceled or postponed. Please, check out the information in advance. Organizers promise that tickets for all postponed events will remain valid. Please, remember to stay healthy!

Minsk tops CIS list of cities for virtual tours

Rarities of the National History Museum  project in Minsk

The National History Museum invites Minsk residents and tourists to visit an outdoor exhibition to see the rarities from its holdings. An unusual exhibition about the Belarusian nation and its historical heritage will be arranged on the fence of Chelyuskintsev Park (Independence Avenue) in early June. Seventy photo-banners will show the rarities from different eras: coins, weapons, national costumes, religious objects, works of fine art, arts and crafts, books, precious metals, awards, musical instruments and many more. This exposition features items presented by the five branches of the National History Museum – the Memorial House of the First Congress of the RSDLP, the Museum of Belarusian Cinema History, the Museum of Theater and Music Culture History, the Museum of Nature and Environment, and the Museum of Contemporary Belarusian Statehood.

When: 2 June 2020 – 1 June 2021
Where: Fence of Chelyuskintsev Park, Independence Avenue, Minsk
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Tadeusz Kosciuszko as an Artist

4 February marked the 275th anniversary of the birth of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the national hero of Belarus, Poland and the United States. On this day, the Memorial Manor Museum in Merechevshchina in the town of Kossovo, the hometown of the outstanding military and political figure, rolled out a unique exhibition-project showing the creative side of the famous general. The exhibition features 16 reproductions of Kosciuszko's works made in different periods of his life. Among them is his first paintings - mostly copies of the works by other artists he made while studying at the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in France, and replicas of the paintings from a later period. Despite the fact that Tadeusz Kosciuszko connected his life with the military, he continued to paint after the uprising of 1794. In America he gained fame as a portraitist.

When: 4 February – 31 March 
Where: Tadeusz Kosciuszko Memorial Manor Museum
108 Kosciuszko Street, Kossovo, Ivanovo District, Brest Oblast
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Mikhail Filippovich exhibition at the National Art Museum

Belarusian artist Mikhail Filippovich, who created many of his works in the 1920s and 1930s, was a witness to the transitional epoch from the late 19th century to early 20th century rich in various artistic innovations. His works either fused or highlighted Art Nouveau, post-impressionism, futurism, suprematism, fauvism, expressionism, neo-realism, impressionism...  Many of his works have made the treasure trove of the Belarusian art. The exhibition for the 125th anniversary of the outstanding painter presents about 150 works: paintings, graphics, sculptures from Minsk museums and private collections, photos and publications. 

When: 4 February – 4 April
Where: National Art Museum of Belarus, 20 Lenina Street, Minsk
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David Yakerson. Sculpture. Graphics expo in Minsk

The Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local History unveiled an exhibition to mark the 125th anniversary of the famous sculptor and graphic artist David Yakerson. David Yakerson studied at the Yehuda Peng School of Art that many famous artists, including Marc Chagall and Lazar Khidekel, attended. He is almost the only representative of sculptural suprematism, a member of the famous avant-garde group UNOVIS. The exhibition features more than 100 graphic works and sculptures, archival photographs, ornamental compositions in the Art Nouveau style, experiments in the spirit of Cubism and Expressionism, plein-air sketches of Vitebsk, innovative suprematist works of the 1920s.

When: 10 February – 4 April
Where: National Art Museum of Belarus, 20 Lenina Street, Minsk

The Island of Desires in the Belarusian State Circus

The Belarusian State Circus presents a new program in anticipation of spring: now spectators will be able to undertake a captivating journey to the Island of Desires. Producers of the new production are convinced that the circus ring is also a fairy-tale island where coveted dreams come true. The program will feature trapeze artists, equilibrists, acrobats, clowns, jugglers, as well as trained ponies and horses, funny ferrets and cheerful dogs. Apart from that, the exhibition Circus Rendezvous will be organized in the lobby in addition to an entertaining photo zone where anyone will be able to try on the role of a circus gymnast, a clown, and even a lion.

When: 20 February – 4 April
Where: The Belarusian State Circus, 32 Nezavisimosti Avenue, Minsk

TheaterHD: Screening of the world's best productions in Minsk

With the onset of spring, the Tsentralny cinema house will continue screening the best productions from around the world. The program includes drama, opera, ballet, and documentary films about art and outstanding painters - #АртЛекторийВкино.

When: March
Where: Tsentralny, VOKA CINEMA by Silver Screen, Minsk

Bolshoi Theater Gala

The rising stars of the Bolshoi Theater of Belarus will give a grandiose concert in the run-up to International Women's Day. The program will feature famous arias composed by Imre Kalman, Johann Strauss and other renowned composers. The Mr. X aria from The Circus Princess operetta will be performed by laureate of international competitions Denis Yantsevich. Another laureate of international competitions, Marina Likhosherst, will play Silva from the eponymous operetta. Dmitry Shabetya and Diana Trifonova will perform Heinrich and Rosalinde from Die Fledermaus operetta.

When: 3 March
Where: Palace of Culture, 41 Kozlova Street, Soligorsk

Beethoven's 250th Anniversary: Concert of Metamorphosis Orchestra in Minsk

Founded in 2015, the Belarusian string orchestra Metamorphosis under the baton of the famous conductor Pavel Lyubomudrov will perform in the chamber hall of the National Beauty School. The program of the concert is themed around the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven, a man who spared no time and effort to achieve perfection! On 2 April  1800, the First Symphony in C major dedicated to Baron Gottfried van Swieten was played at the court theater in Vienna. Three years later, the audience heard Ludwig van Beethoven's Second Symphony composed at the time when he was tormented by the first severe attacks of deafness.

When: 5 March
Where: National Beauty School, 4 Melnikaite Street, Minsk

Diana Arbenina and The Night Snipers in Minsk

The Night Snipers led by singer-songwriter Diana Arbenina, a native of Belarus, will perform in Minsk to celebrate the release of their 10th studio album The Unbearable Lightness of Being. In 2019, the music band marked their 25th anniversary with a world tour. During the pandemic, Diana Arbenina presented her book Snow Leopard. Very soon the new program Oxygen will see the light of the day. The Belarusian audience is promised a triumph of rock-and-roll, with non-conventional performance and the most tracks, including Bonnie and Clyde, Ringtone, Wake Me Up, 31st Spring, Fly My Soul, So Badly, Sad People ...

When: 5 March
Where: Palace of Sports, 4 Pobeditelei Avenue, Minsk

Jazz Evenings at the Philharmonic: Dmitry Noskov Quintet (Russia-USA)

Dmitry Noskov is a singer, composer, author of soundtracks, nominee for the Golden Eagle Award for Best Original Score and founder of his own quintet. He invites the audience on a music journey across America of the 1950s-1960s. It was the heyday of jazz and the peak of Frank Sinatra’s singing career. About 20 hits of the American music legend will be performed by The Dmitry Noskov Quintet musicians, including Stas Dolzhkov (saxophone), Rodion Goborov (piano), Oleg Butman (drums), Ark Ovrutsky (double bass).

When: 8 March
Where: Belarusian State Philharmonic Society, 50 Nezavisimosti Avenue, Minsk

Maslenitsa in Belarus

In 2021, merry Maslenitsa Week, which bids farewell to the winter and calls for the beautiful spring, will begin on 8 March and last until Forgiveness Sunday, 14 March. With its roots in pagan times, this tradition has become an important stage in the preparation for the Christan Lent: during Maslenitsa believers should forgive all grievances, repent and reconcile with neighbors and, of course, have a lot of fun! Cities, ethnographic museums and agro-tourism facilities will hold wide-ranging festivities. They will encompass old fun games, symbolic rites, bonfires, burning of wheels and a stuffed effigy of winter, delicious pancakes symbolizing the sun. The holiday promises a lot of interesting things.

When: This year Maslenitsa Week runs from 8 March to 14 March but the celebrations will begin even earlier. In the old days, ahead of Maslenitsa people celebrated Meat-Fast Week.

Where: city squares, ethnographic museums and complexes
Maslenitsa in the Museum of Folk Architecture and Rural Lifestyle – 13-14 March
Maslenitsa in the Dudutki museum complex – 13 March
Maslenitsa in the park of history “The Grand Duchy of Sula” – 13, 14, 20, 21 March
Maslenitsa in the Stankovo eco-tourism center – 13 March
Maslenitsa in the Dukora Estate museum complex – 14 March
“Hey! Maslenitsa!” program in Berezinsky Biosphere Reserve – 6-14 March
Maslenitsa celebrations in the folk art museum Bezdezhsky Fartushok (Bezdezh Apron) – till 14 March

Sergey Makovetsky and Marina Aleksandrova: The Father play in Minsk

The touching story about the relationship between father and daughter will be told to the Belarusian audience by famous Russian actors Sergey Makovetsky and Marina Aleksandrova. Florian Zeller, the author of the play The Father, won the Moliere Award, the main theater award in France, for his work in 2014. Then, the play was staged in Paris, London, New York, Sydney, and Hong Kong. From the very first scenes the audience is drawn into an emotionally tense atmosphere, where the main character, 80-year-old Andre, has no idea whether he was a dancer or an engineer, whether he lives with his daughter Anne and her husband, and whether his name is Antoine or Pierre? This is a family story, in which a man starts to rapidly lose control of his mind.

When: 10, 11 March
Where: Central House of Officers, 3 Krasnoarmeiskaya Street, Minsk

Festival of lights in Minsk Botanical Garden

This spring, the Central Botanical Garden in Minsk will host the festival “The Kingdom of Magical Lights”. The territory of the Botanical Garden will be decorated with 25 large sets of more than 200 art objects, which will turn the Botanical Garden into a fairytale. The festival will feature Cinderella in a golden carriage, Tinker Bell’s home Neverland, knights guarding the entrance to the magical park, and mysterious creatures in the park: witches making potions, spiders weaving nets, an evil ogre hiding nearby. The biggest light installation will be more than six meters high and ten meters long! Music, lighting, and special effects will immerse visitors of the festival in the atmosphere of a fairytale. The Botanical Garden will be decorated with thousands of diode lamps, several kilometers of diode ribbons, and hundreds of meters of satin. On the weekend, visitors of the festival will be invited to watch a spectacular fire show. There will be three shows: at 20:00, 21:00, and 22:00. The program of the opening day of the festival on 12 March will include a show featuring a three-meter-long fire-breathing dragon at 19:00. The festival will work from 19:00 to 23:00. The giant light installations will come alive after dark. Visitors of the festival will also be invited to visit a food court and buy handmade items from artisans.

When: 12 March – 25 April, Tuesday – Sunday 19:00-23:00, closed Monday
Where: Central Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, 2B Surganova Street, Minsk

Maimuna and Symphony Orchestra

Virtuoso violinist Maimuna is well-known to the public for her duet with singer Yuzari at the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. The musician has also broken the world record, set by Germany’s David Garrett, for the fastest performance of the Flight of the Bumblebee (54 seconds). Maimuna is the former first violinist of the Presidential Orchestra. Today she works solo and performs with the orchestra of the Belarusian State Musical Theater. The new program will feature classical compositions by Brahms, Saint-Saens, Khachaturian, and Monti in modern arrangements, and also soundtracks from the films Game of Thrones, Pirates of the Caribbean, Chocolate, and Anastasia. The program will also include a premiere of the work by Belarusian composer Dmitry Frigа.

When: 13 March
Where: Belarusian State Musical Theater, 44 Myasnikova Street, Minsk

M@rt.kontakt in Mogilev

In 2021, the traditional forum M@rt.kontakt will be held in a new format due to the pandemic restrictions. The city on the Dnieper will welcome creative teams of the country’s leading theaters. The seven-day forum will feature eight plays. The program will kick off with the play Points on Time Axis from the Dunin-Martsinkevich Mogilev Oblast Drama and Comedy Theater. The National Theater of Belarusian Drama will show the play Marriage with the Wind on 22 March. All the plays with be staged on the small and main stages of the Mogilev Oblast Drama Theater, except for the famous play Sinyaya-Sinyaya, named the best mono-performance at the international festival Belaya Vezha in 2017, which will be on at the Mogilev Oblast Puppet Theater.

When: 21-27 March
Where: Mogilev Oblast Drama Theater, 7 Pervomaiskaya Street, Mogilev;
Mogilev Oblast Puppet Theater, 73 Pervomaiskaya Street, Mogilev
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Pinocchio opera premiere at Bolshoi Theater

The Pinocchio opera is one of the most anticipated premieres of the Belarusian Bolshoi Theater. Since it was first staged in 2008, Gloria Bruni's masterpiece has already been performed in Naples, Parma, London and other European cities. The fairytale story will premiere on the Minsk stage during winter holidays. The production team include conductor Vladimir Ovodok, director Natalia Baranovskaya, and designer Lyubov Sidelnikova. Natalia Baranovskaya will debut in the capacity of director. According to her, “the story of the wooden puppet that became a real live boy is still relevant, because we all make mistakes, but fixing them helps us grow ...”

When: 21 March
Where: Bolshoi Theater of Belarus, 1 Parizhskoi Communy Square, Minsk

Minsk concert Anna German – 85. Echo of Love

Anna German – 85. Echo of Love is a concert program of the Presidential Orchestra of Belarus. The program is dedicated to the 85th anniversary since the famous singer Anna German was born. Its singing career began in the 1960s. After a car crash and a lengthy recovery she gained fame as an outstanding signer. The anniversary concert will feature the best songs from Anna German’s repertoire. Talented Belarusian performers, in whose life Anna German’s art occupied a special place, will participate in the concert.

When: 26 March
Where: Palace of the Republic, 1 Oktyabrskaya Square, Minsk

A Belarusian Musical Theater premier: the fairy-tale ballet Peter and the Wolf

More than one generation of children all over the world knows Sergei Prokofiev’s musical fairy-tale Peter and the Wolf. Outstanding people – the conductors Yevgeny Svetlanov, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Leonard Bernstein, Karl Bohm, Sergei Kusevitsky, and Herbert von Karajan – worked at different times with this piece of music created by a 20th century composer while the text was narrated by Nikolai Litvinov, Gerard Philipe, Romy Schneider, and Eleanor Roosevelt. The history of the masterpiece for young spectators is captivating. It began in 1936 when Natalia Sats, the creator of the Central Children’s Theater in Moscow, suggested that Sergei Prokofiev, who had recently returned to the USSR, should write a musical story for the youngest children. Four days later the composer brought a piano score of Peter and the Wolf while the public saw the ballet in 1959.

When: 28 March
Where: Belarusian State Academic Musical Theater, 44 Myasnikova Street, Minsk
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Dimash Kudaibergen in Minsk

The outstanding singer, Kazakh “wonder-voice”, “space boy” Dimash Kudaibergen, who is already called the planet’s best voice, will present a major show in Minsk. Facts are self-explanatory: his voice range includes baritone, tenor, altino, the male version of soprano while the vocal range encompasses six octaves. In China he is recognized as the most popular singer in Asia according to the Top Chinese Music Awards. He has 114 fan clubs in 46 countries while the number of his fans exceeds 10 million. Belarusian fans will be able to enjoy Dimash Kudaibergen’s outstanding voice and his performance of popular classic and modern compositions in the largest concert hall of the country.

When: 28 March
Where: Minsk Arena, 111 Pobeditelei Avenue, Minsk

Pavel Volya’s Stand-Up Show in Minsk

One of the most audacious resident participants of the Comedy Club  project, a successful showman, a TV host, a DJ, an actor, and a musician, Pavel Volya has won hearts of millions of TV viewers over the course of 12 years. He is known for daring monologues about hot-button topics with a pinch of irony and smart jokes. This is what spectators from many countries come for to Pavel Volya’s Stand-Up Show. The great stand-up show is a bright kaleidoscope that combines improvisations, jokes, and true stories.

When: 29 March
Where: Palace of the Republic, 1 Oktyabrskaya Square, Minsk