All that jazz: BelSU holds 3rd ScienceJazz Festival

At a spectacular opening ceremony for the 3rd Belgorod ScienceJazz Festival, BelSU Rector Evgeniya Karlovskaya together with Deputy Minister of Culture of the Belgorod Region Oksana Glushchenko and Head of the Belgorod Philharmonic Svetlana Borukha launched the two-day celebration of intelligence and music, a real highlight of the autumn.

According to Evgeniya Karlovskaya, this cultural and educational project, organised jointly with the Philharmonic, aims at opening to the city residents a unique opportunity of close up views of scientific work of both aspiring and very experienced researchers, as well as the university’s environment and the unique research infrastructure.

Over the course of two days, 11 festival venues hosted more than 40 scientific and musical events, bringing together about 2,000 jazz fans eager to widen their horizons in science.

Scientific exhibition presented achievements by leading scientific departments and university-based youth studios of creativity and innovation. The VR drilling rig simulator at one of the stands organised by the BelSU Institute of Earth Sciences was one of the favourite attractions of the fest, where everyone could experience a fully engaging and immersive rig floor environment. Archaeological Headquarters, a youth studios of creativity and innovation, showed the finds and artifacts obtained during archaeological excavations in the Belgorod Region. They also gave a master class on the restoration of such objects.

Another object of interest was the space module for studying lilac microclones, developed at the BelSU Centre for Engineering. The same module took to the orbit miniscule sprouts the lilac variety, Great Victory, developed in Belgorod,  – an achievement documented by the Book of Russia’s Records as a live plant most distant from the Earth.

Young researchers from Local Solutions for Global Problems, the University’s Biological science and education complex, exhibited a collection of promising microorganisms, including those for cheese production. Coffee lovers were interested to learn about equipment and microbiological strains for the coffee industry. Students from the Young Pharmacology innovation studio spoke about transgenic mice that and how they help scientists in medical and biological research. Smart board, designed by young researchers from the Medical Institute and the Institute of Engineering and Digital Technologies, captured the attention of the guests. According to its developers, this board ensures more successful recovery to the patients having suffered a stroke. Besides a range of master classes on science, the guests enjoyed ones on mastering vocal and musical skills.

Popular science lectures attracted a lot of attention, especially the ones with bits of theatre performance. At one of them, the lecturer, a military history researcher Andrey Khlaponin, a graduate of the BelSU Faculty of History and Philology, was dressed and equipped as an ancient Russian warrior. With a bow and arrows in his hands, he spoke about the history of this “most melodious weapon". At another venue, Elena Kuzubova, a postgraduate student of the Medical Institute, gave a lecture titled, Mice in the Rock and Roll of Science, where she spoke on research into how music can influence the behaviour and vital signs of mice. This multi-sided topic attracts a lot of scientific effort to study how various lab animals respond to both classical music and different noises.

Candidate of Science in Geography, Associate Professor of the BelSU Institute of Earth Sciences Ekaterina Drozdova presented the images of cities of the future, and spoke about the phenomena accompanying the process of urbanization. Anna Urenkova, teaching assistant of the Department of Russian Language and Russian Literature, told the guests about the slang teenagers speak these days.

The second day of the festival featured lecturers from the Znanie society ambassadors: political scientist, senior lecturer at the BelSU Department of International Relations, Foreign Regional Studies and Political Science Roman Travin, Associate Professor from the Department of Theory, Pedagogy and Methodology of Primary Education and Fine Arts Angela Danilenko, and Professor at the Department of Philosophy and Theology Mikhail Ignatov. The speakers gave lectures on how far-reaching and relevant Politics, Art and Jazz can be for everyone, and not only for their researchers.

The festival featured invited speakers along with those representing BelSU. Space engineer Marat Ayrapetyan attempted to predict when jazz would start to play on Mars, and told why at all earthlings strived to get to that planet.

The festival guests also had a unique opportunity to attend private screening of the Jazz-100 documentary and talk to Kirill Moshkov, the film’s scriptwriter. Shot in 2022, the film is devoted to the 100th Anniversary of the first jazz band performance.

The concert program was an ultimate success, with musical groups from Belgorod and jazz players who came different cities of Russia. Musicians performed at various venues – from the concert hall of the BelSU Youth Culture Centre to the cosy university courtyard. The virtuoso performance of the world-famous jazz pianist Daniil Kramer and his trio from Moscow, the grand performance of the Don-Jazz ensemble from Voronezh and the striking appearance of the Big Band No Comment on the festival’s main stage at Belgorod State Philharmonic, where they played together with the trumpeter Vitaly Golovnev – the ex-soloist of the orchestras of Igor Butman and Oleg Lundstrem.

At the breaks between the festival’s main events, guests could visit the university museums. For two days, the Museum of the BelSU history, the Museum of Geology and Mineralogy, the Museum of the nature of the Belgorod region. The Mine - an education and simulation centre, and the university’s winter garden were open to all guests to give them fabulous impressions.

According to the organisers of the 3rd Science Jazz Festival, the format once again proved its relevance. They also hope that next year, the unique symbiosis of science and creativity will again excite and inspire the city residents.

Article prepared within the Scientific Belgorod project, grant-funded by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation.