August 27, 28 and September 1 the participants of Musical Olympus will give their first performances in Rennes, Bretagne’s administrative center. The Brittany Symphony Orchestra (Orchestre Symphonique de Bretagne) will accompany young musicians during the summer musical festival in Rennes.
Darrell Ang, a Grand Prize winner of a Besancon conducting competition of 2007, regular at the St Petersburg Festival and Musical Director of the Brittany Symphony Orchestra as of January 2012, initiated the concerts of Musical Olympus in France.
Eight soloists of Musical Olympus, winners of various of international competitions from five different countries, that will be taking part are Ilya Maksimov (pianist, Russia, Second Prize winner and Prize of the Public winner at the Maria Canals competition in Barcelona); Solenne Paidassi (violinist, France, First Prize winner at Long-Thibaud Competition in Paris); Signum Quartet (saxophone quartet, Germany, First Prize winners at Torneo Internazionale di Musica in Verona); Anna Kasyan (soprano, Georgia/France, First Prize winner at Julian Gayarre competition in Pamplona); Mario Chang (tenor, Guatemala, First Prize winner at Francisco Vinas competition in Barcelona).
“Musical Olympus festival in St Petersburg aims at giving young musicians as many opportunities as possible to show their talents on the international arena”, says the president of the Musical Olympus Foundation Irina Nikitina, “festival participants will have a unique chance to perform at concert presentations in Carnegie Hall in New York, Berlin Philharmonics, Zurich Tonhalle and Esplanade in Singapore. We’re happy to see the contest going more international every year and in 2012 concert presentations will take place in France and Azerbaijan for the first time”.
Musical Olympus, an annual festival that represents the young artistic elites, is a perfect example of globalization trends in music. Started in 1995 in Russia, the festival today is an important international project praised by both the critics and the audiences around the world. The winners of various international competitions are invited to take part in the Musical Olympus and after 17 years the festival presented over 400 artists from 40 different countries, including the now celebrated Nikolaj Znaider, Sayaka Sedzi, Eldar Nebolsin, Martin Frost, Marina Poplavskaya.