Moscow in for Easter music festival

An Easter music festival will take place in the Russian capital May 5 through 12. Alexis II, Patriarch of Moscow and all Russia, has given his blessing to the festival. He is on the event's organizing committee, alongside Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. The Easter festival will feature chamber choirs of the Moscow Conservatory and the Patriarchy of Moscow and also a youth chamber choir from St. Petersburg. Among the festival's major venues will be the Ascension Cathedral at Nikitskiye Vorota, the Moscow Kremlin's Assumption Cathedral, the Assumption Cathedral at the New Convent of the Virgin (or the Novodevichy Convent), the Church of the Virgin of All Sorrows at Ordynka, and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. As part of the festival, a Bell Music Week will be held. Moscow's largest bell, weighing 70 tons and requiring at least 6 ringers, will be among the participants. Leading bell-ringers from many Russian cities and towns are gathering in Moscow for the Week. Bell music concerts are to be held at the Epiphany Cathedral at Yelokhovo; the Church of St. Sergius of Radonezh at Krapivniki; cathedrals of the Moscow Kremlin, including St. Basil's Cathedral; the New Convent of the Virgin; and the Cathedral of Christ the Savior.