At the end of April, the International Firebird of Russia Competition was organized by the Creative and Intellectual Events Foundation. The competition programme in eleven categories was attended by more than 1000 bands from seven countries. Among the participants was the folk song ensemble "Good people" from Penza State University (led by Ekaterina Lisyukova).

The ensemble sent to the competition the video of the “Rose italiano” performance, which brought an unconditional victory in the Mixed Ensembles category.

“The main condition of the competition was to send the already existing video from a live performance on stage,” said Ekaterina Lisyukova. - This is one of our favorite performances that we prepared for the Student Spring. We were delighted when we saw that the chairman of the jury was Italian, because we perform half of the song in Italian. It’s great that there are competitions supporting creative initiative and musical experiments.”

Reference data: Folk song ensemble “Good people” was formed in 1987 at V.G. Belinsky Pedagogical Institute under the guidance of Ekaterina Lisyukova. The ensemble found its name only in 2009. The ensemble consists of students and graduates of the Faculty of Physical, Mathematical and Natural Sciences, as well as the Faculty of Industrial Technology, Power Engineering and Transport.

The repertoire of “Good people” is composed of ancient folklore and ethnic songs in a classical version or a modern arrangement. In 2016, the repertoire included the experimental performance “Rose italiano”, performed in Russian and Italian.

Each performance of the ensemble is a performance on which directors and choreographers work, including Pavel Dokin and Oksana Dokina, Ekaterina Shavshaeva.