‘“Beyond Borders: A Cultural Dialogue of Music” promises to be a celebration of world music and international collaboration.’
Two musical divas are joining forces to showcase the most special sounds that their respective countries have to offer.
“Beyond Borders: A Cultural Dialogue of Music” is a concert featuring Russian singer/actress/host Rumiya Niyazova and the Philippines’ very own “Katutubong Diva” Bayang Barrios. The one-night only event — to be held this Wednesday, January 22 at 6 p.m. at the Asia Pacific College in Makati — promises to be a celebration of world music and international collaboration.
Rumiya had met the show’s producer Faye Miravite of Nadezhda Foundation after she performed in a musical play in St. Petersburg, Russia. The Russian singer and the Filipino jazz artist formed a friendship that led to Rumiya visiting Manila this month.

“Rumiya is actually here on vacation. So, we asked her if she wanted to sing. She said yes,” relates the show’s co-producer Sandra Lim Viray.
Sandra, also a jazz artist, elaborates on the show concept by saying, “Because Rumiya going to sing in her native dialect, we picked Bayang as Bayang can be the counterpart to represent the Filipino artists.”
Bayang will be singing “Ulan, Init,” “Bagong Umaga” and other tunes from her albums “Alon,” “Biyaya” and “Sariwang Hangin,” plus some Filipino kundimans. She will be backed by her group of musicians, Naliyagan.
Rumiya, meanwhile, will perform folk songs and modern songs in Tartar – the language of her home country Tartarstan, a republic in the east-central part of European Russia. The Russian multimedia personality is a three-time winner of the International Tatar Song Festival, host of the program “The Russian Travel Guide,” a musical theater actress, and member of the girl group Velvet. (“We were like the Russian Pussycat Dolls,” Rumiya says of her former all-girl band.)
Accompanying Rumiya will be String Fusion and Jerome Rico.
The two female singers will do solo numbers as well as duets.
As a singing cultural ambassador of the Philippines, the award-winning Bayang has toured India, Germany, Japan and the Netherlands where she performed alongside the singers from those countries. The show with Rumiya is going to be her first with a visiting Russian artist. Bayang declares excitedly, “Ang ganda ng show kasi cultural exchange. Magandang simulain kasi pinapakita nito na ang musika ay walang boundary, walang wall.”
Rumiya is likewise thrilled. When the offer to sing was presented to her, she saw it as a chance to put her culture and people in the spotlight. “Tartarstan is the second largest nation in the Russian Federation. There are approximately two millions Tatars who live in Tatarstan and more than eight million Tatars around the world,” she reveals.
The gracious singer thinks that “Beyond Borders…” could be her most important concert yet outside Russia. Rumiya says with a smile, “Who knows… it might just be the biggest part of my (career) life?”
Tickets to “Beyond Borders: A Cultural Dialogue of Music” are available at www.ticketmax.ph or call or text 09154979909.