Stars of the world "classical" stage will perform at the II International Violin Festival

The II International Violin Festival will be held at the best academic venues during the season, starting in October, in St. Petersburg and for the first time in Moscow. The stars of violin music - Maxim Vengerov, Shlomo Mints, Marianna Vasilyeva and Antal Zalai, as well as famous actors and musicians, including Ksenia Rappoport, Chulpan Khamatova, Polina Osetinskaya and Petr Laul will perform during the festival.

The International Violin Festival is the only one in the world, with the exception of the London LSO International Violin Festival, a specialized violin festival. At the Philharmonic Halls in St. Petersburg, in the Great Hall of the Conservatory and the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall in Moscow, seven concerts will be held with the participation of prominent musicians, stars of the world "classical" stage.

The festival was inspired by Maxim Vengerov after the triumphal Russian premiere of the First edition of the violin concert by Jan Sibelius, which took place at the St. Petersburg Philharmonic on April 10, 2015. This was the first concert organized by Vyacheslav Zilberboard and the Foundation for the Support of Music Education.

“I want people to be inspired by the voices of the best violins, which helped me to regain the joy and meaning of life five years ago. I experienced my 40-year crisis here at concerts in the Philharmonic. You listen to music and suddenly realize that you are only doing what you are experiencing music and listening, your brain is disconnected from other problems that you had before, ”says Vyacheslav Zilberboard, head of the Foundation for Supporting Music Education, founder of the festival.

The upcoming season of the festival will open on the stage of the Small Hall of the Philharmonic on October 8 with the premiere of a special project - a performance based on Bunin’s work “An Unknown Friend” with the participation of Ksenia Rappoport and Polina Osetinskaya. The program includes Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninoff, Debussy, as well as contemporary authors Anton Batagov and Pavel Karmanov. The director of the performance was Valery Galendeev, a well-known theater teacher in Russia, professor of the St. Petersburg Academy of Arts, a long-time associate of Lev Dodin. The lighting design of the performance will be created by the famous theater artist Gleb Filshtinsky.

On October 19, a chamber concert “New Generation - New Interpretations” will take place in the Small Hall of the Philharmonic of St. Petersburg, in which violinists Marianna Vasilyeva, the only violinist in the world who plays all 24 caprices of Paganini in the evening, and Antal Zalai, a student of Laszlo Denes and Peter, will take part Komlosha, a graduate of the Manhattan School of Music and the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, as well as pianist Peter Laul, whose name can be seen on the posters of concert halls not only in Moscow and St. Petersburg, but also in Paris, New York, Amsterdam, Basel, Tokyo, Brussels, Monaco and Lyon and other cities of the world.

One of the most outstanding instrumentalists of our time, the world-famous Maxim Vengerov, winner of many international awards, including two Grammys, will give a big concert on November 4 in the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, two years after his last concert in the capital. The program includes Schubert, Beethoven, Ravel, Izai, Ernst and Paganini. The piano part will be performed by Rustem Saytkulov, winner of many international competitions, including the Piano Competition named after Busoni, Roman Piano Competition and Montecarlo World Piano-Masters.

On November 8, in St. Petersburg in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic, Maxim Vengerov will present the winners of the Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition, one of the key international violin competitions with a rich history, which takes place every five years in Poland and determines the best performers, among whom in different years were Ginette Neveu and David Oistrakh. This year the competition is held under the patronage of the President of Poland. The chairman of the jury in 2016 was Maxim Vengerov.

Also, in October and November, the festival will also include master classes for young musicians Grigory Kalinovsky, Antal Zalaya, Marianna Vasilyeva, Maxim Vengerov.

On January 24 in St. Petersburg, in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic, a concert "Yellow Stars" will take place, dedicated to the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The concert will be attended by Chulpan Khamatova, who will read excerpts from the memoirs of Masha Rolnikaite “I have to say”, published in the “Children’s book of the war. Diaries 1941-1945 ”, Polina Osetinskaya (piano), Julian Milkis (clarinet), Philharmonic Academic Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Altshuler. Alexander Kulitsky, a 9-year-old violin virtuoso, will perform with them, whose performance will be his debut on the stage of the Great Hall of the Philharmonic. The concert will also be directed by Valery Galendeev.

In March, within the framework of the International Violin Festival, two unique concerts by Shlomo Mintz, an Israeli violinist, viola player, conductor and teacher, student Isaac Stern, who received worldwide recognition, dedicated to his 60th birthday, will be held. Shlomo Mintz and the St. Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra will perform a program that includes the Violin Concerto and Mendelssohn Orchestra and Brahms Symphony No. 1. Concerts will take place on March 23 in Moscow, in the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall, and on March 26 in the Great Hall of the Philharmonic in St. Petersburg.

The initiator of the International Violin Festival is the Foundation for the Support of Music Education. The mission of the Foundation is to promote the development of music education and enlightenment in the field of classical music.