A special multi-part event hosted by Pushkin House in London on 20 April 2023 saw the UKpremiere of the film version of Russia : Today, along with a panel discussion on the project, and the world premiere of Our Separate Ways by the British composer Martyn Harry, commissioned aspart of the Russia : Today project and here presented to the public for the first time. EXAUDI, one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles for new music, conducted by James Weeks, performed the two compositions.

Harry’s music set poetry by Lev Rubinstein, offered personally by the poet as part of the original conception of the project, in which the crowdsourced materials that coalesced into Russia : Today the documentary opera, would be contextualised by the words of Russia’s foremost nonconformist poet.

Between the two Harry works, the public was treated to the first screening of Alexandra Karelina’s film (with singing by Ensemble Argentum, conducted by Aivis Greters, and recorded in Narva, Estonia in 2021) in the UK. This screening followed the film’s world premiere in Vladivostok in2021, just before the onset of Russian aggression in Ukraine.

The post-screening discussion included Eugene Birman, the composer of Russia: Today, Tonya Wechsler, the project’s executive producer, James Weeks, the director of EXAUDI, and Martyn Harry, the composer of Our Separate Ways.

The proceeds from ticket sales were donated to support the people affected by the war in Ukraine via Helping to Leave charity.

Programme Leaflet