The Creative House for Composers in Ivanovo

 adventure/activity centre, music museum

''The Creative House for Composers in Ivanovo'' a.k.a. the ''Ivanovo Composers’ House'' (Russian: Дом творчества композиторов), also often simply referred to by musicians as “Ivanovo”, was created in 1943, in the midst of World War II. It was the USSR Union of Composers and its organizing committee led by Reinhold Glière that set as its goal to help composers during these difficult years and to give them the opportunity to continue to do creative work while ensuring basic living conditions, at least during the summer months.
The Creative House is located about 6 km outside the city of Ivanovo (Russia), on the former estate of land owner A. Stefan, a relative of Baroness Nadezhda von Meck, in a very quiet area near the small river Kharinka, surrounded by spacious fields and a beautiful forest of centuries-old oaks.

Invited composers lived in separate, comfortable, one or two bedroom country cottages ("dacha" in Russian), each fully equipped with modern amenities (water, electricity). Many of the dachas even included a grand piano, some of them used by the great masters themselves (Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Khachaturian, Myaskovsky, etc.) that worked and lived there. At evening, after dinner, everyone gathered in the biggest dacha to listen and discuss new music. Leisure time was spent with impromptu concerts, walking, discussing, collecting mushrooms, playing volleyball, playing charades and so on.