Time and again, the Studio for New Music does something unimaginable. This time they decided to turn the Rachmaninoff Hall of the Moscow Conservatory into an aircraft cabin about to circle the globe. While the first StudioFest, held in 2023, was dedicated to the ensemble’s anniversary, this time the project has acquired a title: “Oikoumene. 21st Century”. This season several lines are unfolding at once: the idea was shaped by Arnold Schoenberg’s remark that folklore mixes with art music “as badly as oil and water”. Yet the Studio goes ahead and builds its programme so as to try to find traces of the folk in contemporary works. On top of that, it tries to find out how the global context and publicity have affected music. The aim is global. “Unfortunately, there are unforgivably few such ensembles and projects today” – these words of Konstantin Zenkin, Vice-Rector of the Moscow Conservatory, spoken before the concert began, start to take on additional meaning.