After the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the Novosibirsk opera and ballet theater became the cultural epicenter of the town. A lot of ensembles performed on this venue, such as the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, St. Petersburg State Academic Capella, the State Jazz Orchestra of the RSFSR under Leonid Utesov, Romanian folk ensemble Doina, Central puppet theatre under Sergei Obraztsov, Ukrainian and Belorusian folk ensembles, jazz bands from Chernivtsi and Moldova, etc.
November 7th 1942 a Municipal ceremonial conference was held at the Novosibirsk theatre, which was dedicated to XXVth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. The general committee was placed on a giant stand built between the fence of the orchestra pit and the forestage. The biggest theatre in the country saw its first concert after the conference. The program included performances of the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, the Moscow Pushkin Drama Theatre and other companies. Fourteen night performances, two matinees, five free concerts for soldiers of the Red Army and working men were held in total at the theatre during November-December 1942. One hundred twenty nine events took place on the main stage of the theatre from January to June 1943. In addition to that, twenty two concerts were given in favor of the defense fund and twenty eight performances were free to enter. All funds raised on weekend events were spent on four aircrafts for the Red Army.
In 1942 Dmitri Shostakovich was given a personal guided tour around the theatre construction site during his stay in Novosibirsk. It was during the war time, when the theatre and the composer established a close artistic relationship, which went on for years. November 7th 1942 Shostakovich was present at the performance of his famous Symphony No. 7 dedicated to the Siege of Leningrad. This piece was performed by the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of an outstanding conductor Yevgeny Mravinsky. The orchestra was allocated at the theatre during war times and still managed to maintain an intense concert schedule.
Later on, Yevgeny Mravinsky recalled those times: “It’s commonly known that at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War the Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra was evacuated to eastern parts of the country, so the ensemble spent three years in Novosibirsk. This period is one of the most exciting chapters of the orchestra’s history as well as the musical history of Soviet Siberia. During three years (1941—1944) the orchestra gave five hundred thirty eight symphonic concerts that were attended by approximately four hundred thousand people. The Leningrad Orchestra’s activity had a significant impact on the cultural life of Novosibirsk”.
