Four years have passed since the first Festival was held, a term which is very small to establish a tradition for the event. While the first two festivals aimed to attract as many participants as possible, the following ones (especially the last) focused on the quality of performances. Although there was no particular slogan for the last festival, it was carried out under the banner of professionalism. The selected repertoire became better and encompassed more styles, and the levels of staging the performances were much higher.

It was great to see that children, teenagers and young people (schoolchildren and students) were performing songs in Russian, Yiddish, Hebrew, Kazakh and English languages in a proficient manner. And it was apparent that the texts were not mechanically learned and repeated and that the performers were conscious about the meaning of songs they sang, knew the nature of works and could act out the character of pieces on the stage quite well. Participants were able to present themselves exceptionally, and there were rudiments of professionalism known as the "stage spirit". As the quality of performances became higher, so did the expectations from the performers. A poorly performed recital, whether vocal, choreographic or theatrical, does not catch the attention of the audience. On the contrary, when a performance is executed with mastery, the eyes and the ears of the spectators involuntarily seek out the imperfections; such is the reaction of the audience. Therefore, it is necessary to make sure that the performances are faultless.

The festival is a recurring event. The items learned and performed by the participants may be soon forgotten once the festival is over, but the new ones will be studied for the next coming event. It is delightful to notice that there are people in some communities that participate in the festival year after year, in particular the Almaty and Karaganda communal centres and creative collectives. Despite the fact that taking a part in the festival is a difficult but voluntary activity, all Heseds except for one have arrived. The participants ceased to be nervous ("What if we are the worst, not as beautiful as others?") and were keen not only to watch others, but to show themselves as well. The festival should not vanish, we need to ensure its prosperity. In few years this festival would probably have to be carried out in three separate categories as many dance and vocal groups are becoming more professional.

What do we have in the red? The viewers like not only the performance itself, but also the actors from the moment they enter stage until they leave. This includes a nice appearance on stage, a beautiful bow and withdrawal, and this is what we still do not quite achieve. Perhaps this is so because we do not consider it essential, or, what is more probable, because professional tutors are not engaged with all the groups. I think that it is a good idea to invite professional directors for the last rehearsal to help in case there are no creative and artistic people in collective. If the person has sung, and, not having bowed, left the stage or has sung, bowed, but left in a crooked gait, it certainly would affects the quality of the performance and of the concert as a whole. Unfortunately, we do not have enough money to book a hall not only for the gala concert, but for one more day to give the participants an opportunity to rehearse on a stage. As it happened today, they had only 10 minutes to go through their items.

Alas, we had no sound producer, and as a result, music sounded on one level all the time and was very loud. Each person's voice is of the certain capacity, and this is why Vanya Usatov, for example, needed sound to be set to a lower level than for Ivan Lyahov to make their singing comparable. If more time was allowed for rehearsals, say an hour for each group, sound producers would be better prepared for their work with the sound, voice and melody. For a big audience, a gala concert it is more like a show rather than a pure vocal recital. For a show it is necessary to have lighting and light engineers who know where and when to submit stage lights. In my opinion, it is necessary to start the preparation for the next festival in 40 minutes after the termination of the previous one as any kind of art requires constant refinement and a consistent fantasy, especially choreography.

It is known that although the Jewish youth enjoys dancing, there are no choreographers, no stable dance groups or a hall for rehearsals. Professionals agree that in any form of art the performance, which may last only a few minutes, requires years of preparation. It takes even longer to prepare something with amateurs. I think that it is time to create cultural database for the festival, to collect a records library, texts and videos and to make this treasure available for viewing when required.

It is very difficult and, perhaps, we need to hold a seminar on the culture of the festival. It is a great event - it begins as soon as we agree to participate in it and its culture includes the behaviour of all the participants during the festival - in the cafeteria, at the rehearsals. And the festival ends only after the last bus is gone. Organization of it is a very complicated task. The main burden of the responsibility lays on Karaganda as the festival is held there. And although Karaganda has already had a lot of experience, the gala concert requires a special direction. The festival should grow not only in terms of the number of nominations, but also the level of its gala concert quality.

I wish that it would also be more open to children from different cultural backgrounds. There is nothing wrong in inviting a few people in addition to 20 actors - Jews to improve their performance, but it is worse when there are 7 of our people and 30 guests. Of course, that recital could be done more professionally, but the songs would not reach the people's souls because the performances would no longer be Jewish.

The theatre which hosted the concert does not have a piano. It is not a secret that many Jewish children play piano, cello or violin… Life performance on various instruments would make a big difference, decorate the festival and create a possibility of reducing the usage of recorded music. Minus one music could be beautiful in many ways, but it is very monotonous, and people get tired of monotony of music and movements. You put it on and it goes as was recorded, while music should be a means of expression and needs dynamics and mood changes. It would be very significant for the festival to go from strength to strength and to make a big progress in everything that has been done earlier: presentation, stage behaviour, making colourful costumes and bright, clever stage design. It certainly is easier to give an advice than to make things work, nothing will fall out of the blue, but gradually things could be improved and adjusted. We have time for enrichment, and the longer festival lasts, the greater the number of people giving their feedback about the festival.

It is necessary to make sure that people of the Jewish communities, the Jewish organizations and guests watch the festival and say "Oh! It is even better than it was last year!" and God forbid them saying - "2 years ago it was good, and now it is bad." Reaction of public would be instant, and people will not come again. And no recital can be done well and with love when you see that the hall is empty. It is important to attract as big audience as possible. We call it a festival and not a competition, but nevertheless, people get used to good quality performances and become more critical and less indulgent. Therefore it is necessary to try to do everything well and to make it a great cultural event.

In general, the 4th festival in all the parameters, categories and quality certainly looked better than previous ones, and it demonstrated certain skills and increased abilities. I think that every festival needs to be insured against dissatisfaction and failure.

This year each city has brought to Karaganda some good items and all the groups were equally successful. Individual soloists from different cities also made a good impression and were appreciated by audience with attention and applause. And in general please let me congratulate and express my thanks to all the people who was involved in the preparation of the festival and made it such an enjoyable event. It is visible that the work was not done in a hurry and was well supervised by the director of the festival Ira Kozhanovskaya and the artistic director Ira Revenko.

We are the bearers of Jewish culture. During Soviet time a lot of music was sung in different languages, but I do not remember anything sung in Hebrew. Very little was known about this culture. And the more of it we show the bigger interest to the Jewish art and culture will follow. It is more important to raise the awareness of it in our own communities as we also need to learn much more about our culture. Therefore we should be the first to be interested in the subject and every effort should be done to attract the attention to our culture and its leaders in other communities, and to draw them to our festivals and concerts. I wish that everyone from different national background could sing the Jewish songs in Hebrew and Yiddish with the same ease as they do in English, and the songs then would become very popular.

Anatoly Itkin