The 17th International Musical Olympus Festival in St. Petersburg ended with a concert at the Grand Hall of St. Petersburg Academic Philharmonic named after D.D. Shostakovich. The Festival was held in the Northern capital from May 22 to June 3, with 32 young participants from Russia, Azerbaijan, Moldova, Hungary, Poland, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, Greece, the USA, Mexico, Korea, Japan and Singapore. The main program included seven concerts at the best venues of St.Petersburg: the Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall, St Petersburg State Capella, the Philharmonic Hall and the Hermitage Theatre.

Over 5 thousand listeners had a chance to attend the Festival’s concerts and assess the skill of musicians. Performances by young artists were carried out with a storm of applause from the audience crying out ‘Bravo!’ and repeatedly calling ‘Encore!’. The audience heard the sound of the 1703 ‘Lady Harmsworth’ violin made by Antonio Stradivarius, passionately and sensually played by a Hungarian violinist Kristóf Baráti, enjoyed the soulful performance by Julian Shtekel (cello, Germany); got a positive charge of the live and immediate performance by St. Petersburg ESSe-Quintet. Yuki Kakiuchi (conductor, Japan) and Soeng Yoon (violin, Republic of Korea) impressed the audience with their emotionally rich performances, and Haeran Hong (soprano, Republic of Korea) captivated the audience with ease and subtlety of her vocals.

Besides, this year for the first time the Musical Olympus Foundation within the frameworks of the Festival arranged social concerts at special institutions of St. Petersburg. Twelve Russian artists, participants of the Festival, performed at the №1 Kresty Police Investigation Centre, the №2 House of Veterans and the Children’s Hospice. The idea to arrange charity concerts belongs to the President of the Musical Olympus Foundation Irina Nikitina. She says that the Foundation plans to make the social program a traditional part of the Festival.

Dimitris Botinis (conductor, Greece) notes that the Musical Olympus Festival is an essential event in the lives of its participants, and a real sensation for the audience. ‘Participating in the Musical Olympus Festival for the second time, I can not hide my delight with the scale and quality of this unique phenomenon in the music world,’ – Dimitris says. – ‘For me, a young conductor, cooperation with the three leading St. Petersburg orchestras was not only invaluable experience but also the strongest emotional stress contributing to tremendous creativity surge. The work with brilliant soloists from around the world gave a lot of interesting and vivid impressions’.

‘Nowadays the cultural life of St. Petersburg is hard to imagine without the Musical Olympus,’ – continues Ayyub Guliyev (conductor, Azerbaijan). – ‘It was my fifth participation in the Festival, and I can see how the Festival is growing, how interesting and long-awaited it becomes for music lovers. I am extremely happy and grateful for the fact that I am a participant and witness of this music celebration which combines the talent of young stars of world music culture, exquisite taste, great inspiration and deep love for the divine art’.

In 2012 within the international program frameworks of the Musical Olympus Festival special presentation concert will be held in France, the Lebanon, Azerbaijan and Singapore, with the performers of St. Petersburg concerts. We remind that such presentation with the performers of the previous St. Petersburg Musical Olympus Festival was held in February 2012 at the New York Carnegie Hall.