The Х International Conservatory Week Festival
22 – 29 October 2010, Saint Petersburg
International Conservatory Week, one of the most outstanding and original musical projects of St. Petersburg, is celebrating its 10-year anniversary. Over the years the festival has made a name for itself in 38 languages and has won international renown; it has twice won the Best International Project of the Year competition. A unique international forum without equal anywhere in the world, it has presented more than 120 music academies from different countries and continents to Petersburg connoisseurs and lovers of the musical arts, discovered the names of hundreds of young and talented composers and performers, and introduced the art of teaching of eminent Russian and foreign professors. As it did at the very beginning, the festival continues to develop the academic traditions of St. Petersburg musical culture, and remains young, full of energy, and tolerant towards all musical styles, genres, and trends.
The International Conservatory Week festival remains faithful to its basic goals: to annually arrange a creative forum of the best Russian and foreign music academies on the oldest conservatory stage in Russia, and to encourage the mutual enrichment of different national cultures and the integration of the St. Petersburg Conservatory into the world music process. The festival enhances the prestige of a professional musician’s career and it is also open to new issues and creative ideas, which has kept it firmly on the St. Petersburg festival playbill over the last ten years, and held the interest of young audiences and listeners of different social groups.
The exceptionally democratic format of the festival allows the program to combine all types and genres of musical interaction: concerts, competitions, master classes, seminars, open lectures, creative meetings, and presentations. Every year, the international forum presents participants and listeners with a new theme for dedication: to important dates and names connected with the history of Russia’s oldest musical educational institution, or to significant cultural events from Russia and abroad. The 2010 anniversary festival continues this tradition; its central topic is Russian-French musical relations, which, in the Year of France in Russia, gives representatives of both cultures a new opportunity to learn about traditions and contemporary achievements in the field of composition, performance, and musical education. Among the French guests of International Conservatory Week are musicians from the Paris, Bordeaux, and Lyon academies of music.
The 2010 festival concert program will also present young musicians and professors from music academies in Russia, the United States, Japan, the Netherlands, France, Italy, Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Poland, Hungary, and Israel. Russian and foreign orchestras, choirs, ensembles and soloists, both those well-known to the Petersburg public and those appearing for the first time in our city, participate in the concerts; you'll be invited to world, Russian and St. Petersburg premiere performances of new compositions – one of the most notable traditions of International Conservatory Week. The series of educational seminars on concert management, which the festival has conducted as a part of the international forum since 2002, will be continued. This year famous concert managers from Russia, the United States, and Finland will discuss the organization and promotion of festival projects.
The 2010 forum will acquaint you with the art of famous professors of organ from European academies, who will give a series of open master classes and perform in Glazunov Hall on the conservatory’s new organ from the German firm Eule, which has already become a favorite among Petersburg music lovers. The traditional collaboration of festival management with manufacturers of musical instruments will be continued this year in the form of exhibitions by French companies such as Buffet Crampon and Antoine Cortois Paris. International Conservatory Week will follow its tradition of supplementing the festival concert programs with art exhibitions, and this year we are glad to offer an exposition of works by French and St. Petersburg artists.
The anniversary forum is organized with the support of the Committee for Culture of St. Petersburg and the Board of Trustees of Embassies, Consulates General and Institutes of Culture as representatives of the country whose music academies are participating in the festival. Broad informational coverage of the festival events is provided with the support of Russian and St. Petersburg TV channels, radio, leading newspapers, and magazines.
International Conservatory Week is a bright, youthful, and lively celebration that brings the music and colors of the world to St. Petersburg autumn life and which enjoys the attention and affection of thousands of music lovers.
