10th annual concert of the Musical Olympus International Festival will take place in Zurich on 7 October 2013. Traditionally, the venue for the performance will be Tonhalle, one of the city’s best concert halls. Young musicians from Taiwan, Ukraine, and Russia, winners of the most prestigious global musical contests, will take part in the concert.
Percussionist Yi-Ping Yang (Taiwan - France, 1 prize, TROMP International Music Competition, Eindhoven, the Netherlands, 2008) will open the concert. She will perform the works by С. Hodkinson for side drum and vocal and by M. Honderdos for two timpani. Yi-Ping Yang will conclude her performance with her own piece for five timpani and vocal “Terre Natal”, devoted to her motherland.
Elena Tokar (soprano, Ukraine, participant of the XVIII International Musical Olympus Festival in St Petersburg, 1 prize, the ARD International Music Competition, Munich, Germany, 2012) will continue the programme. In two parts of the concert Elena will perform the musical pieces by G. Verdi, W. Mozart, R. Schumann, P. Tchaikovsky, and S. Rachmaninov to the accompaniment of the Ukrainian pianist Igor Grishin.
The second part of the presentation concert will also feature Russian pianist Elmar Gasanov (3 prize, Géza Anda international piano competition, Zurich, Switzerland, 2012). He will play the works by J. Brahms and S. Rachmaninov.
“We try not only to present new musicians at the Musical Olympus concerts, but also to unveil something new for the audience”, says Irina Nikitina, President of the Musical Olympus Foundation. “Even in such conservative country as Switzerland we, for instance, include in the programme performances of saxophonists or percussionists. And even if the audience is on its guard before the concert, it ends up completely conquered by the temperament and inspiration of young performers”.
Starting with 2004, the Musical Olympus Foundation organizes annual concerts in Zurich with the support of Friends Association of the Musical Olympus International Festival in Switzerland. Over ten years, the Foundation presented to the Swiss audience more than 30 musicians from 15 countries. The main goal of the Festival’s concerts abroad is supporting young talented musicians in the beginning of their career path. Only the best participants of the Festival in St Petersburg get the opportunity to perform at the Foundation’s concerts in New York, Berlin, Zurich, Singapore, Baku, and other major musical centers of the world.