China will have a new Tchaikovsky Conservatory within three years

MOSCOW, 19 May. The Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation has approved a joint project with China by the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory to create a new higher educational institution. This new institution will be implemented in the city of Chongqing in the next couple of years, as announced by Acting Rector of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory, Alexander Sokolov, to TASS.

Sokolov stated, "Now we are helping China to create the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, where all programmes will be ours, Moscow's, as well as the teaching staff. Not only those who now work [at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory] will teach, but also those who have a diploma from our conservatory, including the Chinese themselves, who have studied with us and are representatives of our school both in their home country and in general around the world." He clarified that this will not be a branch of the Moscow Conservatory but a full-fledged new educational institution.

According to Sokolov, the Moscow Conservatory has already received approval from the Russian Ministry of Culture for the implementation of this project, and the Chinese side is now awaiting permission from its ministry. "A place has already been allocated on the bank of the Yangtze River in the wonderful city of Chongqing - in terms of territory [it is] the largest city in the world. I think that in two to three years, the campus will already be built, and the concert halls and classrooms will be built. I have seen how they are doing it, they really don't waste time," added the acting rector of the conservatory.

On 11 March, Mikhail Shvydkoy, the special representative of the Russian president for international cultural cooperation, told TASS that such an educational institution may appear in China on the basis of the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatory and a Chinese university.

According to a joint decision by Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, Russia and China will hold cross-cultural years of Russia and China in 2024-2025.