From September 23 to 26, Tula hosted the 2nd International Ethno Conference of the Russian World Music Chart. For four days, musicians from different regions of Russia and Belarus attended lectures, discussed festivals and international touring, recorded music, played jam sessions, and finally performed together on one stage.
Experts from China, Brazil, Kyrgyzstan, Costa Rica, Serbia, the United States, and other countries joined the professional program.
The first conference of the Russian Folk and Ethnic Music Chart took place in Tula in 2023. At that time, it was largely an experiment. We wanted to see what would happen if we brought together musicians who work with traditional culture in very different ways and gave them several days to communicate and create together. Three years later, the conference returned on a much larger scale.
From the beginning, we did not see it as a typical music conference, a showcase festival, or simply a series of educational lectures. We imagined it more as an artist residency for musicians: a place where people could spend several days with others from the same professional community, talk without rushing, exchange information, organize an informal folk gathering or a jam session, create music together, and simply become friends.
This year, we added a large professional program to this idea. We invited festival organizers, radio representatives, journalists, music managers, and members of the Chart’s expert panel. In the end, even we did not expect these four days to be so full of activity or that so many very different artists would be ready not only to meet each other, but almost immediately start creating something together.
The organizers’ own experience as musicians was also an
important part of the project. Irina Brykova and I have both been performing musicians for many years, so we know this side of the music industry not only through our work with the Chart, but from personal experience.
“Daryana and I are musicians ourselves, so from the very beginning we understood the challenges artists face when trying to develop their bands. We know how difficult it is to promote yourself, make a living from music, and how important it is for every artist to have their work heard and appreciated. Every musician needs an audience and applause,” says Irina Brykova, Conference Director and Director of the Ethno-MY Autonomous Non-Profit Organization.
We tried to make the educational program as practical as possible.
Instead of discussing broad topics such as
“how to promote ethnic music,” we focused on specific questions and regions that are still available for Russian artists. Some of the international experts joined the conference online.
Adele Man-Ching, representing Stallion Era Beijing, spoke about the Chinese music market, working with ethnic musicians, and opportunities for international artists in China.
Brazilian journalist and Mundo Sonoro radio host Janaína Ávila discussed music journalism and the promotion of ethnic music in Latin America. Alejandro Riotte, head of the URÀ showcase festival in Costa Rica, introduced participants to the music industry of Central America and the Caribbean. Musician Tatiana Naryshkina joined the conference this time as an expert and spoke in detail about the realities of organizing tours in the Balkan countries. For her, this was also a good example of how much the conference has changed since 2023.
“Last time, at the conference in Tula in 2023, I came with my project VEDAN KOLOD as a musician and gave a lecture about promoting a band.This time, I spoke about the practical side of organizing tours in the Balkans, based on my own experience with the project. The conference is growing before our eyes and becoming more and more interesting,” says Tatiana Naryshkina.
Russian experts also focused mainly on their own practical experience. Anton Apostol, founder of the punk-ethnographic label Antonovka Records, spoke about how an independent label works with traditional music. Olesya Bliznyukova, organizer and music program coordinator of the Zhatva and Ivan Kupala festivals, and Shonkor Modorov, founder of OinoFest in Gorno-Altaysk, discussed the festival industry and how artists are selected for festivals. Music journalist Sergey Mezenov presented a map of folk music festivals in Siberia.
This year, the professional program also included cultural project organizer Alexey Popov from Veresk Fund, Andrey Perevozchikov, head of the online station Radio Feijoa, and other music industry professionals. The idea was to give musicians a chance to speak directly with the people who usually receive their applications, press releases, and music. Roza Amanova also came to Tula from Kyrgyzstan. She is a singer, composer, ethnomusicologist, People’s Artist of the Kyrgyz Republic, and director of the Research Center for Traditional Culture and Art at the National Academy of Sciences of the Kyrgyz Republic.
During the conference, the Ethno-MY nonprofit organization and the center headed by Roza Amanova signed a cooperation agreement. It includes joint projects, exchange of experience, and opportunities for Russian artists to take part in international festivals in Kyrgyzstan.
The creative laboratory was still the central part of the conference. For four days, musicians worked at four locations: the City Concert Hall, the School of Creative Industries, the Soyuz company, and the Oktava creative industrial cluster. The idea was to bring together people who may never have played music together before. The conference welcomed Garpani Solinga from Yakutia, HAGRIN from Kalmykia, Vladislav Demin from Karelia, Staritsa from the Belgorod region, Zemfira Rashitova from Bashkortostan, Alexander Medvedev from Khakassia, ZOR from Novosibirsk, Beloluna from Sochi, Lestvitsa from Stavropol, ShooDJa-ChooDJa, vErushka, Anastasia Ragozina and Pod Oblakami, Kerob, Riya Volkova, Tula-based Runa Project and RunIra, and many other musicians.
The international program included the Belarusian band Aratseya from Minsk and
Serbian-Russian musician Miloš Lovčenski.
Some of these musicians work with almost completely authentic traditional folklore. Others combine tradition with electronic music, rare folk instruments, rock, original songwriting, or experimental forms. And all these people were sent into studios together.
The creative laboratories are expected to produce collaborative compositions, which will later be collected into a separate album.
For the Belarusian band Aratseya, this was their second conference in Tula. They first came here in 2023. This time, the musicians took part in a panel discussion, met new artists, visited the Tula City Toy Center, appeared live on the morning program of First Tula TV, and, most importantly, worked in the same creative laboratory with RusTradEns and Miloš Lovčenski.
“We recorded a jam track based on a traditional Belarusian harvest song, met interesting musicians and performers, and had many positive experiences from communicating and creating together throughout the conference,” the members of Aratseya say.
But after returning home, they wrote:
“It is very important for us to be part of this and to keep our communication and friendship alive. Now we are back home in Belarus and starting serious work on new tracks and collaborations. But we are sure that we will see each other again very soon.”
Perhaps these words say more than the usual phrase
“the event was successfully completed.” The conference ended, but the collaboration and friendship continue.
For me, the conference also had a personal story behind it. We managed to invite musicians whom we first met 22 years ago at the Kamwa festival — in fact, the first major festival in my own musical life. Among them were Vladislav Demin (Veri, Sattuma) and percussionist Andrey Mikhailov (RusTradEns).
On September 26, the
conference ended with a large gala concert at the Oktava Creative Industrial Cluster. More than 20 musical projects performed on stage.
Andrey Mikhailov described it this way:
“The organizers created an amazing musical mosaic, mixing many different styles and forms of ethnic music — from traditional folklore and experimental formats to folktronica and indie pop. It was incredibly interesting to watch and listen to. We also added our own color to this large musical picture!”
Aratseya remembered another moment from the concert. During their Belarusian song “Kalykhanka,” people in front of the stage suddenly started dancing.
Musician Alexander Medvedev from Khakassia wrote:
“The feeling afterward is incredible! I haven’t had such positive emotions for a very long time. I feel like I now have friends in every city!”
For Zemfira Rashitova, representing Bashkortostan, this was also her second conference:
“This time it was even more productive and interesting. It was incredibly useful in every way! I wish all my fellow artists a lot of creative energy. I hope this wonderful energy after the conference will lead to a lot of new music.”
Vladimir Guskov from Lestvitsa described his experience differently:
“During these days, we were united by one big heart and by a deep, many-sided love for folklore. My deepest respect to everyone for preserving cultural memory and for your generosity of spirit! May our good world be filled with more meetings, forums, conferences, and festivals.”
It is especially interesting to look at the people who attended both the first conference in 2023 and this one. Back then, many came mainly as performing artists. Three years later, some returned as experts who could now share the experience they had gained.
Tatiana Naryshkina’s story is a good example. At first, she spoke about promoting her own band. Now she
can share practical experience of organizing real tours in the Balkans.
What Is the Russian World Music Chart?
The Russian Folk and Ethnic Music Chart was created in the fall of 2021. Its goal is to introduce music industry professionals in Russia and other countries to new Russian releases connected with folklore and ethnic music. In its first year, 40 albums were submitted to the Chart. In 2024, there were 64, and in 2025, the number reached 70.
In the 2025 voting, 20 experts took part from Russia, the United States, Norway, Japan, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Belgium, Spain, Germany, Italy, Serbia, Turkey, and China.
The conference is gradually becoming another side of the same work. The Chart helps music get heard and noticed by the professional community. The conference brings together the people who create this music and the people who record it, release it, play it on the radio, invite artists to festivals, and listen to music professionally. Sometimes, it simply introduces one musician to another.
At the end, one of the planned formats stopped needing the organizers altogether.
An informal folk gathering began in the conference hall and gradually turned into a large spontaneous jam session. The musicians played together for nearly three hours with no schedule, no assigned groups, and no pressure to produce any particular result.
“At some point, everyone simply started playing and creating music together. It went on for about three hours, late into the night. Everyone listened to each other and experimented. You could hear musical traditions from the Belgorod region blending with Karelian instruments from Vladislav Demin, Miloš playing the Bulgarian bagpipe, and Dmitry Paramonov playing the gusli. Sometimes the musicians had to step outside their comfort zones, butat the same time, they truly felt that they were part of their own musical community,” recalls Irina Brykova.
So much happened during these four days that it is difficult to measure the result only by
An international music network does not begin with a list of contacts. Sometimes it begins much more simply: someone picks up a gusli, someone else a bagpipe, someone remembers a song from their home region, and the others start listening. A few minutes later, people who didn’t even know each other the day before are already playing music together.
Perhaps that is exactly what the conference was created for.
Daryana Antipova
*Tula is one of the oldest and most picturesque cities in Russia, located on the Upa River, almost 200 kilometers south of Moscow. The city was founded in 1146, which makes it even older than the Russian capital.
