The orchestra of the renowned Russian Aleksandrov music and dance ensemble has presented its own, independent programme of forty new musical pieces.

While the ensemble is known across the world for performing war and patriotic music, this time it offered its spectators a totally different show – featuring jazz, blues and pop hits.

They spent more than a year preparing the programme, fitting rehearsals into the tough schedule of concerts and foreign tours.

“The last three weeks were especially hard with non-stop routine of concerts and rehearsals. The musicians had to work double shifts,” conductor Nikolay Kirillov said.

The Aleksandrov orchestra prepared a pleasant surprise for Moscow jazz lovers, inviting the Czech jazz legend Felix Slovacek, the founder of the Big Band Radio Prague.

“They are fantastic musicians, and they have arranged everything beforehand: the programme, the scores. I only had to bring my musical  instrument,” Felix Slovacek exclaimed.