At the International Festival of Youth – 2026 in Ekaterinburg, the visitors witnessed a unique multimedia concert, Symphony of Innovations. Dedicated to the life and work of Sergei Rachmaninoff, the project combined classical music with most recent technologies.
Specifically for the show, a series of staged performances had been developed, in which classical musicians performed together with virtual performers. Modern technologies helped create a unique atmosphere on stage. The show featured a robot conductor, as well as AI-generated holograms of female singers and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff. The Moscow State Symphony Orchestra also took part in the performance, together with its Artistic Director and Conductor Ivan Rudin. Singers Polina Shabunina and Gleb Peryazev, pianists Ivan Bessonov, Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev and Filipp Kopachevsky, violinist Mikhail Usov and cellist Vasily Stepanov also took part in the performance.
The central theme of this remarkable show was the life and work of Sergei Rachmaninoff. The creators of the show wanted to introduce the audience not only to the composer himself, but also to his era, to the people close to him, and to the composers who lived and worked in Russia and abroad at the time. One of the program’s performances, for example, contrasts works by Rachmaninoff with those by Scriabin, while Debussy’s “Clair de Lune” is accompanied by an installation inspired by the paintings of Arkhip Kuindzhi. Works by Bartók and Gershwin were performed as well. At the culmination of the show, it was Rachmaninoff himself who “appeared” on stage. In the finale, he played the famous first part of his Piano Concerto No. 2. To create this piece, the most recent technologies had been used to extract the piano part and remove the background noise from the composer’s performance recorded in the early 1920s. During the show, live orchestra accompanied the recording, meanwhile AI technologies made it possible for the composer himself to “perform” the concerto’s solo piano part on stage.
“This was an opportunity for our orchestra and the audience to hear Rachmaninoff live, so to speak. It was an incredible and incomparable experience for us, for the musicians, as it allowed us to experience the music together with its composer. From the very first chords, the storm that Rachmaninoff unleashes with the opening arpeggios draws all the musicians in. We all want to join him. It was an honor and a pleasure for each of us,” conductor Ivan Rudin shared.
The creators of the show achieved another major breakthrough while working with the AI female singers who also “participated” in the concert. “It turned out that AI knowledge bases contained no data related to classical vocal performance. There was rock and pop music, but no opera singing. No matter how we formulated the prompt, there was simply no valid data. We had to train the AI for a long time, and in the end, we basically created that database ourselves,” said Andrey Ereshko, Artistic Director of Rosconcert.
The evening also featured an unusual performer — a robot conductor which took the stage to conduct one of the program’s performances – the famous “Dance of the Knights” from the ballet “Romeo and Juliet” by Sergei Prokofiev. Technically complex, the concert required not only talented performers on stage, but also a highly professional and well-coordinated technical team.
“There are more than 30 people involved, all of them highly skilled specialists. Essentially, all the technologies related to artificial intelligence, touch design and generative graphics are used in our show,” said Natalya Roslan, Stage Director of “Symphony of Innovations”. The unique show received an enthusiastic response at the International Festival of Youth. At the end of the hour-and-a-half concert, the audience gave the performers a standing ovation.
“We want to show that technology does not work against music; on the contrary, it helps reveal the beauty of classical compositions. Perhaps today some people in the audience heard works by Scriabin, Bartók, Rachmaninoff, or Debussy for the first time. They opened the door to the world of classical music. We hope that when they return home, they will visit their local concert halls. We want them to bring home the love of classical music they discovered in Russia, in the heart of Ural, Ekaterinburg,” conductor Ivan Rudin stressed.
Overview:
The International Festival of Youth, held as part of the Youth and Children national project, is taking place in Ekaterinburg from September 11 to 17, 2026. The decree establishing the event was signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin on December 29, 2025. The Festival is being held under the motto "Follow Your Dream."
Participants of the IFY – 2026 include 10,000 young leaders from 191 countries, including 5,000 Russians and 5,000 international citizens. Among them are leading representatives of creative industries and the arts, public administration, science and education, sport, entrepreneurship, media, digitalization and IT, and civic engagement – people who are already shaping the future of their countries and the world. Continuing the successful practice established at the World Youth Festival 2024, those invited include 1,000 teenagers aged 14 to 17 – 500 from Russia and 500 from abroad. The Children's Program is organized by the Movement of the First.
The World Youth Festival took place from March 1 to 7, 2024, in Sirius, in accordance with a decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin, aimed at developing international youth cooperation. The WYF-2024 brought together 20,000 young leaders from 190 countries.
In line with instructions from Russia’s President on preserving and building on the legacy of the World Youth Festival, festival events are now held annually across Russia. The World Youth Festival Directorate continues its work to strengthen international youth cooperation and build a community of young people who care about the future of the world.