Moscow’s first museum of vintage music to open at VDNKh in April

Moscow’s first House of Vintage Music will open at VDNKh exhibition centre’s Pavilion 84a in mid-April. Its collection will include more than 500 retro record players such as gramophones, phonographs, radio receivers, radiograms, and juke boxes.

The exhibition will tell visitors the history of each vintage exhibit. Many of them belonged to famous historical figures. For example, the collection includes a recode player which once belonged to the actor Jean-Paul Belmondo also there is the Phillips radio set used in Diamonds Are Forever from the James Bond series starring Sean Connery, Russian singer Iosif Kobzon’s radio and record player, and also American, European and Soviet phonographs and gramophones dating back to between the 1920-1940s. The museum will soon acquire Thomas Edison’s famous phonograph, a device invented to record and reproduce sound.

All the vintage exhibits are operational. The museum will organise musical sessions for people to listen to recordings of Feodor Chaliapin, Alexander Vertinsky, Elvis Presley, the Barry Sisters, Vladimir Bunchikov, Vladimir Nechayev and other 20^th century singers.

“The House of Vintage Music has a vast collection of vinyl records from the previous century, which includes over 3,000 music records,” said Museum Director Kristina Belenkaya.

The museum will consist of five themed rooms, each covering a certain period in the record players’ history – the late 19^th century, the 1920s, the 1920-1940s, the 1930-1950s, and the 1950-1980s.

One of the halls will feature a room called “Boss’s Office”, which will recreate the atmosphere of the 1930-1940s with a phonograph, a fountain pen and books.

All the exhibits come from a private collection gathered since 2001.

The House of Vintage Music will open in Pavilion 84a which is being refurbished. Earlier, it hosted the Moscow Animation Museum, which has moved to the Izmaylovo Kremlin.