The name Festino means „Little holiday“. It is the first word of the Italian madrigal comedy by A.Banchieri that was the first piece that Festino performed. Festino was founded in 2008 in Saint-Petersburg, Russia by the young choral conductor Alexandra Makarova. The choir unites 19 young choral conductors from Saint-Petersburg, graduated or present students of Saint-Petersburg musical College named under N.A.Rimsky-Korsakov and Saint-Petersburg State Conservatory, choral conducting faculty. Our mission is to make choral music popular among younger people and to present areas of choral music that are still not popular in Russia: Renaissance and Baroque music and modern music of twentieth and twenty first century. Festino chamber choir works with baroque music ensembles in Saint-Petersburg and Moscow, such as “Barocco concertato”, “One orchestra”, „Prattica Terza“ and „New Holland“. In cooperation with 8 composers, Festino presented two programs: „The History of madrigal“ (2014), that consists of 8 madrigals written from 15 till 20-th century and 8 modern works written specifically for the choir. A new program from 2016, “Spiritual bonds” addresses the «Russian spiritual code” of the new generation (30 and under).

Since 2015 with the music of St-Petersburg modern composer Nastasya Chruscheva female part of the choir is working in Bolshoj Tovstonogov Drama Theatre in performance “Chto delat? “ Directed by A.Moguchij. And in 2016 Festino took part in a program titled, ”400 years without Shakespeare” at the Mariinsky Theatre.

In 2014Festino won at the International chamber choir competition Miltenberg, Germany, the 1st Prize. In 2015 at the International chamber choir competition Marktoberdorf also  the best young conductor`s prize for Alexandra Makarova, following with the International contest of Flanders-Maasmechelen (2017) with First Prize and Special Prize and the International Competition Florilege Vocal de Tours (Tours,France 2018).

Every year choir takes part in several festivals in St-Petersburg and Russia, such as Molot- festival,St-Petersburg Musical Autumn, From Avant-garde till Nowadays, Theatre festival Baltijsky Dom, festival 16/21, Сhristmas festival in Petrozavodsk Philarmonics. Festino performs in such concert halls as St.-Petersburg State Philharmonics, Mariinsky Theatre, State Academic Capella of St. Petersburg, Suvorov State museum and others.