Gazprom-Media Holding, the leading diversified media holding in Russia and Eastern Europe, has become an official sponsor of the State Academic Bolshoi Theatre of Russia in the “Official Opera Sponsor” category.
The agreement signing ceremony was held today at the Bolshoi Theatre with Alexander Zharov, CEO of Gazprom-Media Holding, and Bolshoi Theatre director Vladimir Urin taking part.
As part of their partnership, Gazprom-Media Holding and the Bolshoi Theatre will carry out a number of joint projects over the next year. Their aim is to popularise opera in Russia and support the Bolshoi Theatre’s opera school. This includes the launch of a podcast series about opera. Gazprom-Media’s podcast studio, the PodcastBar label, will produce the podcast with the involvement of Bolshoi Theatre. The main objective of this project is to raise interest in opera among audiences who prefer modern audio formats of content consumption.
There are also plans to hold online broadcasts of the best opera productions from the theatre’s current repertoire on the Holding’s digital video platforms. Moreover, the two partners are developing their own socially-oriented partnership program. Its key priorities include the support of talented performers and efforts to foster further growth in their professional development.