Valery Gergiev & Mariinsky Orchestra

Date: April 16－7:30 pm

Venue: National Centre for the Performing Arts

Valery Gergiev is a vivid representative of the St Petersburg conducting school and a former pupil of the legendary Professor Ilya Musin. While still a student at the Leningrad Conservatoire, Gergiev won the Herbert von Karajan Competition in Berlin and the All-Union Conducting Competition in Moscow, following which he was invited to join the Kirov Theatre (now the Mariinsky) as an assistant to the principal conductor. His debut as a conductor at the theater came on January 12th, 1978 with Sergei Prokofiev's opera War and Peace. In 1988, Valery Gergiev was appointed Music Director of the Mariinsky Theatre, and in 1996 he became its Artistic and General Director, leading the orchestra and opera and ballet companies. The Mariinsky Orchestra is one of the oldest musical ensembles in Russia. It can trace its history back to the early 18th century and the development of the Court Instrumental Chapel. Under the direction of Valery Gergiev the Mariinsky Theatre has become a major theater and concert complex, without par anywhere in the world.