Das zwoelfte internationale Festival "Musical Olympus"

IN MANY WAYS IRINA NIKITINA epitomises the way the arts have developed in Russia over the past decade or so. Though trained as a pianist, she decided that the new freedoms of post-Soviet Russia presented too good an opportunity to miss. Acting almost as a one-woman show purely on her own initiative, she set about introducing inter?esting new artists from across the world to her native St. Petersburg. Her main vehicle for doing so remains the Musical Olympus Festival, a series of concerts in St. Petersburg each summer, featuring the winners - or, if Nikitina decides she prefers them, the second or third-placed contestants - in various competitions worldwide.

The 10th International Festival "Musical Olympus" is traditionally held in St. Petersburg but this year it started in Moscow on 26th May and the next day moved to the Northern Capital.

Irina Nikitina, president of the Musical Olympus Fund, admits that, if pushed, she could easily moonlight as an air stewardess - as a producer and director, she spends much of her time jelling across the globe. She has flown into St. Petersburg for just 40 hours. We met with Irina at her apartment in the center of the city, with its beautiful view out onto the Moika. The next day, Nikitina was to travel on to Moscow, and then Europe.

Some of the brightest of the world’’s youngest musicians assemble in town this week to take part in "Musical Olympus," a respected and internationally recognized annual festival launched by acclaimed Russian pianist Irina Nikitina in 1995.

Innert weniger Jahre ist der "Musical Olympus" zum festen Teil des St. Petersburger Musiklebens geworden.

Bereits zum achten Mal findet diesen Sommer in den ehrwuerdigen Konzersaelen
von St. Petersburg der "Musical Olympus", dieses Gipfeltreffen musikalischer Preistraeger aus den bedeutendsten internationalen Wettbewerben, statt. Ein ebenso einfaches wie einleuchtendes Konzept, das die Pianistin und Intendantin Irina Nikitina erfolgreich durchgesetzt hat. Ein Gespraech mit der initiativen Musikerin und Kulturmanagerin sowie ein Festivalportraet.

She has style, she has look, and her charm is fascinating. Her smile is disarming and powerful: it can conquer everyone. She looks like a Dresden figurine, but there is steel beneath the porcelain. Looking in her eyes one can feel she is a strong-willed and decisive person. Being a child she dreamed of becoming a well-known performer, but her father, famous cellist Professor Anatoly Nikitin did not believe the girl could become a prominent musician. "And that helped me", says Irina, "I knew I could do it, make my dreams come true, and I finally did it. From my early childhood I was trying to prove myself out".

A festival dedicated to showcasing promising young artists in Russia may be an indicator of wider trends, reports Mike Farish.

IF YOU WANT A MEASURE OF HOW Russia has changed over the decade since the fall of the Soviet regime, it would be difficult to find anything more symbolic than the first thing you see when driving out of St Petersburg airport - a Coca-Cola bottling plant. As you head into the city, there is plenty of other evidence of the spread of western consumer culture - adverts for all sorts of goods from cosmetics to computers festoon the buildings.