The poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko will perform in Moscow and Saint Petersburg in December 2007. The Moscow Times article says the performance will be in Moscow on December 12th and at St. Petersburg's Ice Palace on December 15.

I have seen Yevtushenko perform live three times in the past including once after a performance of Dmitri Shostakovich's 13th symphony which puts Yevgeny Yevtushenko's poem Babi Yar (and others) to music. (Babi Yar Ukraine was the location of Nazi massacre of Jews in World War II.) The poem Babi Yar is featured at the Holocaust Museum in Washington DC, whose website has photos online of the location and mass graves. Yevtushenko has been famous for more than 40 years now -- Time magazine featured him in 1972 and in 1962 he was on the cover.

Although, he is most famous for his poem Babi Yar, Yevgeny Yevtushenko has likely written miles of poems including:
"Breaking Up"
"Tomorrow's Wind"
"Incantation"
"Waiting"
"Monologue of A Broadway Actress"

I like his poetry, but I love to see him perform it. If you have been to a boring poetry reading, give poetry one more chance and see a poetry performance by Yevgeny Yevtushenko. Here is a video of Yevgeny Yevtushenko performing one his poems with his usual energy.

+ YouTube Video

You can find MP3 files of his dramatic readings and Shostakovich's 13th symphony at the Museum of Jewish Heritage. There are more audio and video files of Yevtushenko at the University of Chicago's website.

Thanks to the blog Russia Past and Present for pointing out Yevtushenko's Moscow concert.

Anyone else familiar with Yevtushenko's work or performances who would like to comment?

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Yevtushenko will be reading his poetry as part of a "Russian Revel" evening in Boston, Massachusetts on May 22, 2008 that will benefit a Ballets Russes 2009 Festival being held in Boston that will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the founding of Diaghilev's ballet and opera company.

Also performing at Russian Revel will be prima ballerina Nina Ananiashvili in Michel Fokine’s Dying Swan. Olga Konosenko and Nerijus Juska, stars of the Lithuanian State Ballet, will perform the world premiere of a pas de deux recreated by choreographer Andris Liepa from Le Pavillon d'Armide (the first ballet ever performed by the Ballets Russes). Completing the evening will be renowned Russian baritones Anton Belov and Mikhail Svetlov, along with mezzo-soprano Gulnara Mitzanova singing arias from Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Borodin's Prince Igor.

Ballets Russes 2009 is a cultural organization devoted to celebrating the centenary of modern ballet, and to building new audiences for dance and the arts. A weeklong festival in Boston in May of 2009 will feature dance, music, visual art, cinema, symposium, and other happenings inspired by the genius of Diaghilev’s creative team and the extraordinary figure of the impresario himself.

Ballets Russes 2009 will be an unprecedented collaboration of New England cultural institutions coming together to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, and scheduled to participate are Boston Ballet, the Boston Pops, New England Conservatory, the Museum of Fine Arts Boston, the Wadsworth Athenaeum, and Boston University. The Boston celebration will be linked to programming in Russia and France that will commemorate the revolutionary enterprise know as the Ballets Russes. For more info: Ballets Russes 2009 Festival.