Event: Russia - St. Petersburg

Musical Olympus International Festival

When:	25 May - 2 Jun 2008 (annual)
Where:	St Petersburg
Opening Hours:	Various

First held in 1996, the Musical Olympus International Festival invites competition winners in classical music from around the world to perform in the historic city of St Petersburg.

Young conductors and soloists who have impressed international juries are invited to St Petersburg to play with the city's orchestras, including the mighty St Petersburg Philharmonic, the State Hermitage Orchestra and the St Petersburg Symphony Orchestra. Venues include the Hermitage Theatre and the Grand Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonia.

Competitions whose winners are regularly featured include, for conductors, the Sir Georg Solti International (Frankfurt am Main), the Besancon International, the Witold Lutoslawski International held in Belostok, Poland and the Sergey Prokofiev International, held in St Petersburg in April 2008.

Instrumental competitions represented include the Kussevitzky International Competition for Double Bass (Saint Petersburg) and the Franz Liszt International Piano Competition (Weimar). Even composers are not left out, with M Galves-Taroncher's La Luna y la Muerte - first prize winner in Brussels' Queen Elisabeth International Music Competition (2007) - represented in 2008.

Full details of the complete programme and participants can be found on the festival's extensive website (in both Russian and English).