Audience Award at the 17th International Musical Olympus Festival – a handmade silver Easter egg by a famous jeweler Vladimir Mikhailovwent to a Japanese conductor Yuki Kakiuchi, supported by the majority of the audience. Voting was carried out at each concert through question lists. The organizers received a total number of over one thousand filled-in question lists from the audience. As the Audience Award winner, Yuki will be the first to receive an invitation to participate in an international Musical Olympus festival concert program.

A Japanese conductor Yuki Kakiuchi, winner of the Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors (France) in 2011, impressed the Russian audience with his emotional performance. On June 3 the conductor took part in the final – the seventh – concert of the Musical Olympus festival, held at the Grand Hall of St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic named after D.D. Shostakovich. That night accompanied by the Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra were soloists from the USA, Spain and Moldova. The musicians performed the works by Rossini, Mendelssohn, Rachmaninoff, Dvorak, Kalman and Mozart. Yuki Kakiuchi managed to share his positive attitude not only with musicians but also with the whole audience.

Yuki Kakiuchi was born in Japan in 1978. Upon graduation from the National University of Music and Fine Arts in Tokyo, Yuki continued his training in Europe. The musician performed with the Brasov State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra and Salzburg Youth Philharmonic Orchestra. He then came back to Japan where he worked with the Osaka Symphony Orchestra. In the 2011/12 season Yuki Kakiuchi had a debut performance in Suntory Hall and in Bunkamura Orchard Concert Hall with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra. Yuki Kakiuchi has also scheduled a tour in Belgium and France with the Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra.

The Audience Award of the International Musical Olympus Festival was established in 2008. The prize is provided by Vladimir Mikhailov’s jewelry workshop that annually supports not only the festival in St. Petersburg but also foreign presentation concerts of the Musical Olympus.

The Audience Award of the Festival 2012 is an Easter egg made as a triptych icon called ‘Descent into Hell’ which complements the collection of table and hanging Easter eggs. Each item of the collection has got a unique design: the image of one of the Twelve Feasts is followed by various images of the Blessed Virgin or Jesus Christ. The items of the collection are made in silver, green or white gold and encrusted with diamonds.

Vladimir Mikhailov, a stone-carving artist of Orthodox images and symbols, works with the blessing of the Church since 1983. In his creative work the master revives the artistic technique of Orthodox religious images that originated in Pskov and Novgorod in the 12^th – 13^th centuries, was passed down from generation to generation and has become the traditional for images of Orthodox characters in Russia. Vladimir Mikhailov, St. Petersburg artist jeweler, is often referred to as the successor of Faberge’s traditions for the high quality of his jewelry items. Worshipers of the brand and happy owners of jewelry by Vladimir Mikhailov include an actress Lydia Fedoseyeva-Shukshina, a musical diva Anna Netrebko, Queen Sofía of Spain, a famous actor Mickey Rourke and many others.