Bravo
April 20
Bravo started out in 1983 in what was then the U.S.S.R. and are still around today. Founded by Yevgeny Havtan, Bravo's first lead singer was the now legendary Zhanna Aguzarova who left the band to pursue her solo career in the late 1980s. In more than 30 years of existence the band has gone through several more lead singers, including Valery Syutkin. Today some of the songs are performed by Robert Lentz and some by the band's leader Yevgeny Havtan. Bravo released their latest, thirteenth album in 2015 and is rumored to be working on a new one.
11 Ulitsa Ordzhonikidze. Metro Leninsky Prospekt. +7 (495) 230 1030. glavclub.com
Basta
April 20-22
This weekend the Mega sport hockey stadium will host not one, but three concerts by Basta, one of the most popular Russian hip-hop artists of the past decade. That's how Basta (real name Vasily Vakulenko) likes to celebrate his birthday. Basta is not just a musician, he's the godfather of a whole new generation of rappers, signed on his record label Gazgolder, so guest appearances are quite possible.
CSKA. 3 KhodynskyBulvar. Metro CSKA. +7 (495) 643 1825. www.hockey-palace.ru/
(M)uchenik (Student)
April 21-22
(M)uchenik is a play on words “muchenik” (martyr) and “uchenik (student) and is one of the most critically acclaimed theater productions by Kirill Serebrennikov, the embattled director of the Gogol Center, who's been under house arrest for almost a year. Based on a play by Marius von Mayenburg, it's a story about a high school student channeling his teenage revolt into religious fanaticism, becoming a belligerent Christian zealot. Serebrennikov turned the production into the film “The Student,” which won an award at the Cannes Film festival in 2016, but he said “the theater performance is actually funnier.” Check it out for yourselves this weekend.
8 Ulitsa Kazakova. Metro Kurskaya. +7 (499) 262 9214. en.gogolcenter.com
Thomas Mraz
April 22
Thomas Mraz, not to be confused with American pop-rock singer-songwriter Jason Mraz, is an R’n’B musician from Ufa, the Republic of Bashkortostan. He plays alternative R’n’B and has been compared to the likes of The Weeknd and Frank Ocean. He recently signed on with Booking Machine, a new label run by Oxxxymiron, one of Russia's most prominent rap artists, and a new album is expected to come out this year.
11 Ulitsa Ordzhonikidze. Metro Leninsky Prospekt. +7 (495) 230 1030. glavclub.com
Zverev Gala
All weekend
The Zverev Gala exhibition just opened at the AZ (Anatoly Zverev)Museum. It is a celebration of the AZ's third anniversary and covers all the different themes in Zverev’s oeuvre, including famous female portraits,landscapes, and abstract paintings. Some of them will be shown to the public for the first time, including illustrations for “Diary of a Madman” by Nikolai Gogol. If you are unfamiliar with the work of this important non-conformist artist, Zverev Gala is a great introduction.
AZ Museum. 20-22 2nd Tverskaya-YamskayaUlitsa. +7 (495) 730 5526. Metro Mayakovskaya. museum-az.com
