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Curtain call - The Tsarina's Slippers, Tchaikovsky at the Royal Opera House by kotomi-jewelry

This article was written by Global Graduates, published on 3rd November 2014 and has been read 4833 times.

Russian speakers, check out this page for resources and UK-based event listings to help you practice your language skills and immerse yourself in Russian culture without leaving the UK! Think we've missed something? Click here to send us your suggestions for listings!

Resources to help you immerse yourself in the culture

Use ListenLive to listen to Russian radio stations Read Russian newspapers online Check out the Russian Cultural Institute website for events and exhibitions. 2014 is the UK-Russia year of culture, so look out for special Russian events in the UK! Check out The Kompass (an online Russian magazine) for UK-Russian events Visit the Scotland-Russia Forum website for news of Russia-related events and notices (you can also visit them on Facebook and Twitter).

Cultural events across the UK

January 2015

15th Jan: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Royal Festival Hall, London

An all-Russian programme of music - both in programme and in soloists.

28th Jan: Sergei Guriev in conversation with Gideon Rachman, Pushkin House, London

The former rector of the New Economic School, Sergei Guriev, will be in conversation with Gideon Rachman, Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator for the Financial Times.

29th Jan: Psoy Korolenko - "My uncle...", Pushkin House, London

Well-known singer, songwriter, performer, critic and slavist Psoy Korolenko will perform a rather unique one-man cabaret; funny and serious, deep and simple, traditional and contemporary, Russian and international.

February 2015

5th Feb: Russian Wine Club: Valentine's Day Special, Pushkin House, London

As usual in the wine club, attendees will taste six wines, suggest matches with food and finish off with a chance to win a prize in the wine club quiz!

6th Feb: Robert Chandler's Monthly Translation Workshop, Pushkin House, London

All translators, at any stage in their career, are welcome to attend this Russian-to-English workshop; the only requirement is fluent English and a good reading knowledge of Russian.

9th Feb:GB Russia: Dr Paul Keenan on St Petersburg and the Russian court, Pushkin House, London

Paul Keenan will examine the city's development as a suitable seat for the Russian imperial court and examine the relationship between Russia and Europe.

10th Feb - 14th March: Swan Lake, Royal Opera House, London

Witness the ballet classic with Tchaikovksy's famous score. If you can't attend in person, catch the live cinema relay on 17th March.

11th Feb: Artemiy Troitsky: Russia Today Beyond 'Russia Today', Pushkin House, London

Freshly squeezed view from Russian music critic and socialist Artemiy Trotsky of what's really going on in Russia and around it.

March 2015

28th March: Russian Masters, Royal Festival Hall, London

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra showcases works by great Russian masters, including Rachmaninov, Glinka and Tchaikovsky.

April 2015

May 2015

June 2015

18th June: Screening of 'Waterloo', Edinburgh International Film Festival

A screening of the classic film to mark the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo. EIFF, in partnership with The Royal Edinburgh Military Tattoo and the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, present a special screening of Sergei Bondarchuk's 1970 film Waterloo, comemorating the 200th anniversary of the Battle of Waterloo.

18th & 20th June: Screening of 'The Gulls', Edinburgh International Film Festival

Stuck in a loveless marriage to a local fisherman, only fear of the unknown keeps Elza from walking away. Then fate takes a hand… A modern parable, exploring one woman’s inner struggle with duty, love, loneliness and tradition, set against the beautiful, desolate backdrop of Kalmykia, a remote south-westerly Russian republic.

July 2015

22nd July - 21st October: 3 Days in the Country, National Theatre London

A new translation of Ivan Turgenev's play, 'A Month in the Country', translated by Patrick Marber, will be presented at the National Theatre. Cast includes Mark Gatiss ('Sherlock').

29th July - 1st August: The Suicide, Central School of Speech and Drama, London

Nikolai Erdman's 'The Suicide' will be performed by the Central School of Speech and Drama MA Acting Classical class of 2015.

August 2015

3rd - 16th August: Baba Yaga, Duddingston Kirk Manse Gardens, Edinburgh

Adapted from a Russian folk tale, this outdoor promenade production, with singalong music and audience participation for children of all ages, tells the eternal story of of how good can overcome evil. Magical. Music composed by John Sampson.

7th - 31st August: Edinburgh Festival Fringe, Scotland

This year's Edinburgh Festival features multiple Russian-speaking acts. Visit the Fringe website for details.

10th August: Isfar Sarabski in concert, Ronnie Scott's, London

The acclaimed Azerbaijani pianist Isfar Sarabski will take a break from studying at Berklee College of Music to perform at Ronnie Scott's jazz bar.

14th-29th August: Animotion Show, George Henriot's School Quad, Edinburgh

The live chemistry between renowned virtuoso percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and acclaimed Russian visual artist Maria Rud delivers a sound and image fusion that is truly unforgettable. Maria’s evolving paintings are beamed live, by projection artist Ross Ashton, onto the walls of the quadrangle of George Heriot’s School – a 17th-century architectural gem revealed for the first time to Festival audiences.

17th - 22nd August: Contemporary?, SpaceTriplex, Edinburgh

A good parody has to have to have four elements: it must make the audience laugh, surprise them with the plot, be better and show higher quality than the original, and the parody cannot become a mockery or public exposé. Contemporary? matches all of these criteria. This is probably the first time in Lithuania that three artists have cooperated to create a performance that looks at the Lithuanian contemporary dance scene with a self-ironic glance, quoting cliché movements, phrases and even costume details.

19th August: The Essence of Tolstoy; The Soul of Pamuk, Edinburgh International Book Festival

Nowhere are the decisions of the translator more forensically picked over than in a translation of one of the classics. Fortunately, Rosamund Bartlett’s new version of Tolstoy’s Anna Karenina is the most accomplished of several recent translations. Meanwhile Maureen Freely is best known for her translation of five novels by leading Turkish author, Orhan Pamuk. Both are exceptional translators and today they discuss their craft. Chaired by James Runcie.

20th August: Rosamund Bartlett on Anna Karenina, Edinburgh International Book Festival

In the workshop today translator and biographer Rosamund Bartlett looks at Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy. The novel portrays a beautiful and intelligent woman whose passionate love for a handsome officer sweeps aside all other ties – marriage, friendship and moral values.

24th - 30th August: Valery Ponomarev Quintet, The Jazz Bar, Edinburgh

The Russian trumpet star escaped from 70s Cold War USSR, got to New York, then toured the World with Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers for four years, recording eleven albums. In from New York with a top-notch, high energy five-piece.

25th - 19th August: Bloody East Europeans, Quaker Meeting House, Edinburgh

Everybody knows that all the UK’s problems are caused by Eastern European immigrants with funny names and an annoying habit of working too hard. But who exactly are these people? What do they want from us? Featuring mean gangsters, glamorous ladies, romantic bricklayers and professional toilet scrubbers, Bloody East Europeans combines comedy, tragedy, Red Army songs, Ukrainian folk ballads and 70s disco hits to tell you everything you ever wanted to know about these strange and unpronounceable people. Performed by the Molodyi Teatr, a London-based Ukrainian company.

30th August: Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

The Festival’s Honorary President, Valery Gergiev, and the outstanding London Symphony Orchestra bring the Festival’s Usher Hall concerts to a thrilling conclusion with music by two of the 20th century’s most dazzling, vibrant composers. Gergiev closes the performance with the unstoppable rhythms and searing orchestral colours of Stravinsky’s history-changing The Rite of Spring.

September 2015

3rd September: Sergey Chesnokov on The Poetry & Art of Dmitry Prigov, Pushkin House, London

Culturologist Sergey Chesnokov was closely involved in the life of the artistic underground in Moscow in the 1970s-80s. In this talk, as a long-standing friend of the iconic Dmitri Prigov (1940-2007), he examines the principles which informed Prigov's artistic activity, and puts the fate of the Russian language, at the time long violated by Soviet propaganda, in the spotlight.

4th September: Screening of 'The Postman's White Nights', Pushkin House, London

The Postman's White Nights won that years' Silver Lion at the Venice film festival. All its actors are non-professionals - they play local characters that make up Lake Kenozero's many isolated towns - places from which you can only reach the mainland by boat. We join the postman, the villagers' only connection with the outside world, on his day-to-day routes, and watch as stories unfurl, and unravel. In Russian with English subtitles.

5th September: Languages Open Day, Summerhall Café, Edinburgh

The Scotland-Russia forum will be holding an open day so that prospective students can discuss Russian classes with tutors.

8th September: An Evening with Poel Karp, Pushkin House, London

To mark his 90th birthday, the well-known Russian sociologist, political analyst, ballet critic and poet will read his poems and verse translations from English and German and answer questions related to other areas of his expertise.

10th September: Screening of 'The Way to Ukraine', Pushkin House, London

“The Way to Ukraine”: journalist Sarah Hurst talks about and shows excerpts from her new film on the Russian citizens abandoning Russia for Ukraine.

11th September: Screening of 'Leviathan', Pushkin House, London

Winner of Best Foreign Language Film award at the Golden Globes, Academy Award nominee for Best Foreign Film; lauded in the West, met with criticism from the Russian Ministry of Culture - Leviathan needs almost no introduction. Set on the remote Kola Peninsula, near the Russian border with Finland: Zvyagintsev's Cannes Award-Winner depicts the tragic conflict between an individual, and a corrupt system of power.

From 18th September: Cosmonauts: Birth of the Space Age, Science Museum, London

The Cosmonauts exhibition will reveal the most significant collection of Russian spacecraft and artefacts ever to be shown in the UK.

18th September: Vitaly Komar on 'Pushkin's Cat and Other Animals in my work', Pushkin House, London

As part of flamboyant and hugely influential art duet Komar & Melamid, Vitaly Komar was one of pioneers of Moscow conceptualism, the authors of ‘sots-art’ movement and some first performances and installations in Moscow in 1970’s. Vitaly Komar’s talk is expected to be, as usual, witty, playful and full of twists.

27th September: LADA: Festival of Russian Songs and Traditions, Pushkin House, London

Join Pushkin House in a day-long celebration of Russian culture and traditions: games, arts & crafts, village folk song & choral workshops, traditional costume and folk attributes exhibition and a concert. All welcome (Russian and non-Russian speakers).