From the musical festival in Perm

Hello!I am writing from Perm, where my music festival is being held now. It is one of the regional festivals that I organize in Russia, and this year it is held for the 2nd time already. Both celebrities and young musicians take part in our concerts, and the formats of the events differ as well: there is my recital, my concert with an orchestra, a chamber music concert and a charity concert of the young musicians. Along with Perm, there will be concerts in Berezniki. The programmes of the concerts will be totally different, without having anything in common.We opened the festival on February, 9, together with the “New Russia” orchestra and conductor Alexandr Sladkovsky, the Honoured Artist of the Russian Federation. In the Great Hall of the Perm Philharmonic we played Rachmaninov, Piano concerto no.3 February, 10, during my recital I played Schubert, Beethoven, Grieg and Stravinsky – the programme of my American tour, from which I returned on January, 28. Today we had a charity concert of the young musicians, and tomorrow there is the final chamber concert. Last year’s festival ended with a jazz concert. This time we decided not to repeat the past but to make Perm acquainted with the great musicians, my friends and colleagues, who live abroad and don’t appear in Russia too often: Serget Krylov, violin (Italy), Boris Brovtsyn, violin (UK), Julia Deyneka, viola (Germany) and Alexandr Buzlov, cello (Russia). We will play together Rachmaninov, Shostakovich and Bartok.As always, in my regional projects the “New names” foundation make an audition for the gifted children. The best teachers from Moscow have come to Perm to listen to the children and to name the new grant holders. The grant holders will be awarded with musical instruments, invited to the creative school in Suzdal, to the showcases. Last year 12 young musicians became grant holders of the “New names” foundation. We have been watching their evolution during this year, and they have became parts of our big artistic family.Now I am telling just a verbal story, but quite soon you will see some new videos on my site and my YouTube channel. On February, 4, I had a concert in Amsterdam in Concertgebouw, one of the most famous concert halls in the world. I played Rachmaninov, Piano concerto no.3 together with the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor James Gaffigan. I have been collaborating with the orchestra for a long time, we know each other very well. While waiting for the video of this concert I suggest watching the video from my USA tour in 2010, where I perform Rachmaninov together with the orchestra headed by Vasiliy Petrenko. You can watch it here.Also I will record a new post for my videoblog. I will record it with an I-Phone which I bought recently. See you!