Description of the attraction
The A. Mirek Museum of Russian Harmonica is a branch of the Museum of Moscow. Its exposition is devoted to the history of the existence and development of the Russian folk instrument - the accordion, as well as the reed musical instrument - the harmonica.
The museum was founded by A. Mirek. Alfred Martinovich Mirek - Doctor of Arts, Honored Art Worker of Russia, Professor. Mirek has been collecting materials on harmonics since 1947. By the early seventies, he had amassed a huge collection. These are research materials, photographs, biographical materials, records, posters. These are more than two hundred musical instruments of various types, many of which are extremely rare. This is a lot of archival documents.
In 1952-56, Mirek built a private house for his collection. The two-storey house was located in the settlement of scientists of Sofrino, 43 kilometers from Moscow. Mirek's house was often visited by foreign experts from different countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Germany, Czechoslovakia, Holland and Poland, as well as African countries.
By 1994, Alfred Mirek had collected about a hundred more harmonics. On the advice of his friend, People's Artist of the USSR Yuri Nikulin, in 1996 Mirek made a petition to the mayor of Moscow. He explained the need to create an International Museum of Russian Harmonica. In the same year, the Mirek Museum was allocated a room in the center of Moscow.
In 1997, on the day of the 850th anniversary of Moscow, Mirek donated the collection of his private museum as a gift to Moscow. In 1998, all museum exhibits were included in the funds of the Museum of Moscow. In January 1999, the Moscow Government issued a decree “On the establishment of the Museum of Russian Harmonica by A. Mirek as a branch of the Museum of Moscow”. Its opening took place in December 2000.
The Mirek Museum is the only harmonica museum in our country and the fourth in the world. There are similar museums in Germany, Italy and the USA. The museum exhibits more than 250 types of harmonics. An important place in it is occupied by the reconstruction of the harmonica of 1783.
The themes of the exhibition are varied and interesting. You can visit the "Workshop of the Russian Harmonic Master", the "Traditional Moscow Tavern", visit concerts of musicians performing music on the harmonica, accordion and button accordion. Together with the guide you can dance and take part in samovar tea with refreshments. The exposition of the museum ends with a section introducing visitors to the history of the creation of the museum, its collection and the personality of the founder of the museum - Alfred Martinovich Mirek (1922 - 2009).
