Once again during the white nights season St. Petersburg will gather winners of international musical contests from various countries at the Musical Olympus Festival. 34 musicians from 18 countries in Europe, Asia, South America, and Africa will participate in the XIX International Musical Olympus Festival.

The Festival’s programme will traditionally feature seven concerts on the best stages of St. Petersburg: Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre, the Hermitage Theater, the State Academic Cappella, and the Grand Hall of the Shostakovich St Petersburg Academic Philharmonia.

Irina Nikitina, President of the Foundation: “Once again St. Petersburg will host this festive musical event that will offer new musical rendezvous and unveil for the audience new names and musical pieces.”

This year the Festival will host a world premiere. On May, 23 Samuele Telari, winner of the International Young Musicians Competition Prize "Antonio Salieri" (Italy, 2013), will perform concerto for accordion and orchestra by a young Italian composer Enrico Blatti on stage of the State Academic Cappella.

Every concert of the Festival is unique and offers diverse repertoire and lead instruments. The Festival has a special focus on education and awareness raising.

The opening concert of the Festival will take place on May, 22 at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre. The opening night will feature the symbolic ouverture “Vivat, Olympus!” written by composer Andrey Petrov for the opening of the first Musical Olympus Festival. The musical piece will be performed by the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sergey Smbatyan (Armenia).

The charity concerts of classical music to support people in difficult life situations who cannot visit city cultural events have become an integral part of the Festival and will also be held this time. In 2014 such concerts will be organized in a children’s hospice, an investigative detention facility and for veteran artists.

Among dozens of major musical festivals and concerts the Musical Olympus Festival is a unique event. Its main goal is to support young musicians at the beginning of their career regardless of their nationality and musical specialty, the main selection criteria being musical expertise and talent.

The Festival invites for participation the winners of the largest recent international competitions. Over the years, the Musical Olympus Festival has introduced to the audience more than 400 young musicians from almost 40 countries. Many of them already enjoy solid international career, for instance Nikolaj Znaider, Ilya Gringolts, Sayaka Shoji, Eldar Nebolsin, Martin Fröst, Marina Poplavskaya, Darrell Ang, Vasily Petrenko, Enrico Dindo, Boris Giltburg, Tugan Sokhiev, Khatia Buniatishvili, Andrey Baranov, Sol Gabetta, Andris Nelsons, Mario Chang.