III International Festival Dedication to Maestro

March 9-15, 2009 The State Hermitage Museum and Domus production centre present

III International Festival Dedication to Maestro which will take place every day on the dates mentioned in the halls of the State Hermitage Museum and the Hermitage Theatre. The Chairman of the Artistic Council and the Organising Committee is Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage Museum.

The General Partner of the Festival is JSC Promsvyazbank.

The State Hermitage Museum along with its partners develops the musical tradition of St. Petersburg.

Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky said: "The Museum is an asylum for all the muses, all the arts should synthetically exist here. Hermitage is musical - there is the Hermitage Theatre and the halls of the Winter Palace where music always used to sound. Music is what makes the Museum alive".

The State Hermitage Museum offers 7 exclusive concerts in the Hermitage Theatre and the halls of the State Hermitage Museum with the participation of the stars of classical music.

III International Festival Dedication to Maestro is a tribute to the memory of the greatest composers, people of art and musicians and it suggests organisation of the concerts dedicated to the memorable dates. A unique feature of the Dedication to Maestro Festival is not only the place of its concerts but also its multi-genres. Within the frameworks of the Festival classical and jazz concerts will take place as well as the evening of the ballet and the performance of the maestros who had already left a significant imprint on the history of culture. This year the Festival will open on March 9th with a concert dedicated to the 200th anniversary of F. Mendelssohn-Bartoldi (1809 - 1847) starring the People's Artist of Russia Sergey Stadler who will be thec conductor and the soloist. On March 10th on the stage of the Hermitage Theatre the soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre Dmitry Voropaev and Olga Pudova accompanied by the State Hermitage Museum Orchestra will perform the musical masterpieces of the great opera classics Giuseppe Sarti (280th birth anniversary), Dominico Cimarosa (260th birth anniversary), Giacomo Puccini (150th birth anniversary) and Ottorino Respighi (130th birth anniversary) whose jubilees are being celebrated this year. The programme of the Festival is diverse as usual and includes music of various styles and epochs, from Francesco Araja (300th birth anniversary) to jazz - on March 11th a concert Dedicatoin to Jazz will take place. A well-known jazzman, the People's Artist of Russia David Goloschokin is 65 years old. On March 12th on the stage of the Hermitage Theatre the Honoured Art Worker of Russia, the laureate of the State Prize Vladimir Ziva will celebrate the 25th anniversary of his artistic activity. During the first act of the concert favourite musical masterpieces of the conductor will be played, during the second act maestro will pay tribute to the heroes of this year's anniversaries - Johann Strauss (205th birthday anniversary), Franz von Suppe (190th birthday anniversary) and Jacques Offenbach (190th birthday anniversary).

The programme includes the famous melodies from the operettas. For the first time one of the Festival evenings is dedicated to a great dancer and choreographer of the 20th century Vaslav Nijinsky (120th birthday anniversary). The audience will see fragments of V. Nijinsky's ballets and choreography staged by him performed by the Mariinsky Theatre principal dancer Igor Kolb. The leading soloists and principal dancers of Mariinsky and Mikhailovsky Theatres will take part in the programme.

On March 15th in the Armorial Hall of the Winter Palace the final gala concert of the Dedication to Maestro Festival will take place. The concert is conducted by the People's Artist of USSR, the laureate of the State Prizes Saulius Sondeckis; the soloist is a young but already famous violinist, the laureate of international competitions Sergey Dogadin.

The traditions of Russian arts patronage have a rich history. Art lovers inevitably feel an urge to create a spiritual environment and to support art and creativity even in popularization and enlightment work.

"Supporting the Festival has long ago become a good tradition for Promsvyazbank", said the Vice-president and the Managing Director of the St. Petersburg branch of Promsvyazbank. "Today Dedication to Maestro is one of the brightest and most awaited cultural events of the spring season in St. Petersburg. The Hermitage's musical festivals are unique; they are not just a series of concerts, each of them contributes to preservation and development of St. Petersburg's musical traditions. The music which sounds in the halls of the State Hermitage Museum charms the audience and takes them back to the times of Catherine the Great, the founder of the tradition of musical concerts in the Palace".

The organizers of the Festival express sincere gratitude to the companies which supported the Festival:

General Partner:

• JSC PROMSVYAZBANK

General Media Partners:

• ELDORADO radio station
• INTERBUSINESS magazine

Official Partners:

• HENNESY socio-cultural foundation
• NOVOTEL hotel

Media Partners:

• PLADIS television channel
• Business Woman magazine
• Zhensky Peterburg (Women's Petersburg) magazine

The programme of the Dedication to Maestro Festival