On 19 July 2006, a Press Conference devoted to the festival was held in the Hermitage Theatre. The State Hermitage, the Creative Alliance of Museum Employees of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast and the Committee on Culture of the Government of St Petersburg presented to journalists the 5th International Festival of the Grand Waltz, which takes place from 21 through 31 July 2006.

The Chairman of the Honorary Committee of the Festival is Academician Mikhail Piotrovsky, the Director of the State Hermitage and Chairman of the Creative Alliance of Museum Employees of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast. Julia Kantor is the originator of the idea for the festival and its artistic director.

The State Hermitage, together with the Creative Alliance of Museum Employees of St Petersburg and the Leningrad Oblast, actively supports the principle declared by UNESCO calling for rebirth of our non-material heritage. In this spirit the museum and its partner developed the concept of a yearly festival of the Grand Waltz, which won the Intermuseum-2003 Festival competition in Moscow in the category of "Best Museum Project." The Grand Waltz project brings together under the aegis of the Hermitage the biggest cultural institutions of St Petersburg and Vienna. It not only helps strengthen cultural bonds and promotes the culture of St Petersburg in the regions of our country and abroad, but it also encourages the patriotic education of Russian citizens by bringing them into contact with the nation's spiritual values.

The Grand Waltz Festival each year provides the context for 11 concerts – matching the number of summer seasons that Strauss spent in Petersburg. This year the concerts will be held in the Hermitage Theatre, the Armorial Hall of the Winter Palace, the State Palace of Congresses (Konstantinovsky Palace), the Grand Palace of Peterhof, the Catherine Palace of Tsarskoye Selo and the Rose Pavilion of Pavlovsk, where the great Austrian composer performed.

Each concert not only matches the programs of the Strauss seasons, but also develops traditions of small-scale music-making for the public that was laid down nearly two centuries ago. The program of the Fifth Festival features concerts of symphonic and chamber music, vocal and choreographic evenings.

Among those performing in the Festival are masters who have already made important contributions to the history of musical culture: the world renowned Austrian director and specialist on authentic performance of Strauss's music, Christian Pollak; soloist of the Dresden State Operetta Isabella Ma-Zah (soprano); the well known Russian conductors Mikhail Sinkevich, Alexander Kantorov and Vladimir Altshuler; the Terem Quartet; soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre and well known instrumentalists - cellist Sergei Roldugin and pianists Larisa Gergieva, Vladimir Mishchuk and Alexei Orlovetsky; as well as the ballet troupe of the Rimsky-Korsakov State Conservatory of St Petersburg, the State Hermitage Orchestra and the Classica State Orchestra.

The Official Partner of the festival is the Domus Producer Centre. The General Sponsor of the festival is OJSC Bank Moskvy.

At the press conference

Mikhail Piotrovsky, Director of the State Hermitage

Christian Pollak, conductor (Austria)

Mikhail Kamensky, adviser to the President of Bank Moskvy

Pavel Lavrov, manager of the St Petersburg Branch of OJSC Bank Moskvy