The Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre (which celebrated the Mariinsky Theatre’s 225th Anniversary in 2008) enjoys a long and distinguished history as one of the oldest musical institutions in Russia. Founded in the 18th century during the reign of Peter the Great and housed in St. Petersburg’s famed Mariinsky Theatre since 1860 (named in honour of Maria, wife of Emperor Alexander II), the Orchestra entered its “golden age” in the second half of the 19th century under the musical direction of Eduard Napravnik. Napravnik single-handedly ruled the Theatre for more than half a century (from 1863-1916) and under his leadership, the Mariinsky Orchestra was recognised as one of the finest in Europe.

The Mariinsky Theatre was also the birthplace of numerous operas and ballets which are regarded as masterpieces of the 19th and 20th centuries and presented world premiere performances of works by Glinka, Borodin, Mussorgsky, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Khachaturian.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky was closely associated with the Mariinsky Theatre, not only conducting the Orchestra, but also premiering his Fifth Symphony, Hamlet fantasy overture and Sixth Symphony. Sergei Rachmaninov conducted the Orchestra on numerous occasions, including premieres of his Spring Cantata and the symphonic poem The Bells. The Orchestra also premiered music by the young Igor Stravinsky, such as his Scherzo Fantastique and the ballet The Firebird.

Throughout its history, the Mariinsky Theatre has presented works by Europe’s leading opera composers: the world premiere of Verdi’s La forza del destino, the first Russian performances of the complete Wagner’s Ring cycle, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger, Parsifal, and of Richard Strauss’ Elektra, Salome, Der Rosenkavalier and Berg’s Wozzeck.

Numerous internationally famed musicians have conducted the Orchestra, among them Hans von Bülow, Felix Mottl, Felix Weingartner, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Otto Nikisch, Willem Mengelberg, Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter, Erich Kleiber, Hector Berlioz, Richard Wagner, Gustav Mahler and Arnold Schoenberg.

Renamed the “Kirov” during the Soviet era, the Orchestra continued to maintain its high artistic standards under the leadership of Yevgeny Mravinsky and Yuri Temirkanov. Now in the post-Glasnost era the Theatre has reclaimed the Mariinsky name and under the leadership of Valery Gergiev has forged important relationships with the world’s greatest opera houses, among them the Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden, the San Francisco Opera, the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris and La Scala, Milan and the concert halls of New York, Vienna, London, Paris, Salzburg, Berlin, Tokyo and Beijing as it has entered into its second “golden age”. Apart from extensive touring with the Opera and Ballet Companies, the Orchestra has performed throughout the world to international acclaim, and has been acknowledged in the London press as one of the ten best orchestras in the world. The success of the Orchestra’s frequent tours has created the reputation of what one journalist referred to as “the world’s first global orchestra”.

In 1998, the Orchestra made its debut tour of China, a historic first, with a performance in the Great Hall in Beijing that was broadcast to fifty million people in the presence of President Jiang Zemin. It was the first time in forty years that a Russian orchestra had played in China. Its fourth visit to China took place in December 2007 as the Opera and Orchestra became the first foreign artists to appear in the new opera house and concert hall in Beijing.

Under the baton of Valery Gergiev, the Orchestra has recorded exclusively for Universal Phillips and Decca Classics since 1989. Since 1992 the orchestra has made 14 tours of North America including a 2006 celebration of the complete Shostakovich symphonies and a 2008 cycle of the Stage Works of Prokofiev. In the winter of 2010 the orchestra will make its 15th tour of North America celebrating works of Berlioz and in the fall of 2010 its 16th tour celebrating the Gustav Mahler centennial.

November 2006 marked the grand opening of the Orchestra’s new home at the Mariinsky Theatre Concert Hall. The only theatre and concert venue of its kind in Russia, the Concert Hall is on the site of the historic Set Workshop that had served the Mariinsky for over a century and created some of its most famous productions. The Concert Hall’s acoustics, the work of Yasuhisa Toyota, have brought accolades ranking it alongside the world’s finest modern concert venues such as Lucerne, Sapporo, Berlin’s Philharmonie, Leipzig’s Gewandhaus and Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles. Now in its new home the orchestra created its own “Mariinsky Label” and released three discs in the spring of 2009 with several more to be released in 2009-10.

Valery Gergiev’s inspired leadership as Artistic and General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre since 1988 has taken Mariinsky ensembles to 45 countries (presenting the best of Russian opera and ballets as well as the complete Shostakovich and Prokofiev symphonies and Wagner’s Ring cycle) and has brought universal acclaim to this legendary institution, now in its 226th season. In November 2006, the new and superb Mariinsky Concert Hall opened, and the new Mariinsky Opera House is schedule to open at the end of 2011.

Presently Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Valery Gergiev is also founder and Artistic Director of the Stars of the White Nights Festival and New Horizons Festival in St. Petersburg, the Moscow Easter Festival, the Gergiev Rotterdam Festival, the Mikkeli International Festival, and the Red Sea Festival in Eilat, Israel.

Valery Gergiev succeeded Sir Georg Solti as conductor of the World Orchestra for Peace in 1998. Solti himself had recognized Gergiev as his natural successor when they met two years before Solti died. Solti sensed that Gergiev was “...a man of the theatre,” and likened their meeting to the occasion when Solti met Bruno Walter, who had encouraged him to take the position at Covent Garden. Feeling the need for a new, young, dynamic opera conductor, Solti wrote “… I welcome the arrival of Valery Gergiev…”

Born in Moscow, Valery Gergiev studied conducting with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad Conservatory. At age 24 he was the winner of the Herbert von Karajan Conductors’ Competition in Berlin and made his Mariinsky Opera debut one year later in 1978 conducting Prokofiev’s War and Peace. In 2003 he led St Petersburg’s 300th anniversary celebrations, and opened the Carnegie Hall season with the Mariinsky Orchestra, the first Russian conductor to do so since Tchaikovsky conducted the hall’s inaugural concert in 1891.

He was the subject of Carnegie Hall’s 2007-08 Perspectives: Valery Gergiev, in which he gave concerts with the Mariinsky, Vienna Philharmonic and Metropolitan Opera orchestras and conducted productions of Prokofiev’s War and Peace and The Gambler at the Metropolitan Opera.

Highlights of the 2008-09 season included a Prokofiev cycle at Lincoln Center in New York: staged works (Mariinsky Orchestra) and the complete symphonies (LSO), a cycle of Prokofiev symphonies and concertos with the LSO in Paris and Tokyo, and the Mariinsky Theatre’s production of Richard Wagner’s “Ring” at Royal Covent Garden, London.

In the 2009-10 season Maestro Gergiev conducts Berlioz’s Les Troyens in St. Petersburg, Valencia, Spain and New York’s Carnegie Hall. He also conducts the New York Philharmonic in a three-week Stravinsky Festival, presents a Mariinsky Shostakovich Cycle in Vienna, leads works of Henri Dutilleux with the London Symphony and conducts Shostakovich’s The Nose at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. In the 2010-11 season he offers a Mahler Cycle in London, New York, Paris and Japan.

Maestro Gergiev is the recipient of a Grammy Award, the Dmitri Shostakovich Award, Golden Mask Award, People’s Artist of Russia Award, the World Economic Forum’s Crystal Award, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize, Netherlands’s Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion, Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun, Valencia’s Silver Medal, the Herbert von Karajan prize and France’s Royal Order of the Legion of Honor.

He has recorded exclusively for Decca (Universal Classics), but appears also on the Philips and Deutsche Grammophon labels. His vast discography includes many Russian operas, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky Symphonies among many others.

His Mahler Symphonies Nos. 1, 2, 3, 6 and 7 are released on LSO Live, the first releases of a complete Mahler cycle with the LSO. His first recordings on the newly formed Mariinsky Label are Shostakovich The Nose, Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 1 & 15 and Tchaikovsky 1812. There will be several additional Mariinsky releases during the 2009-10 season.

Denis Matsuev, piano

Denis Matsuev has become a fast-rising star on the international concert stage since his triumphant victory at the 11th International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow in 1998, and is quickly establishing himself as one of the most sought-after pianists of his generation.

Mr. Matsuev has appeared in hundreds of recitals at theat the most prestigious and legendary concert halls throughout the world.

Mr. Matsuev has collaborated with the world’s most best known orchestras, such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Filarmonica della Scala, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Orchestre National de France, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Orchestre de Paris, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and the European Chamber Orchestra; he is continually re-engaged with the legendary Russian orchestras such as the Saint-PetersburgSt. Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Mariinsky Theatre O Orchestra.

Denis Matsuev appears regularly collaborates with the most prominent conductors on the stage today, including Lorin Maazel, Yuri Temirkanov, Mikhail Pletnev, Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Semyon Bychkov, Mikhail Pletnev, Myung-Whun Chung, Vladimir Fedoseyev, Leonard Slatkin, Ivan Fischer, Gianandrea Noseda, Myung-Whun Chung, Vladimir Fedoseyev aand others.

Highlights of upcoming concerts seasons include appearances Denis Matsuev with the New-YorkNew York Philharmonic Orchestra and Berliner Philharmoniker with Valery Gergiev, , London Symphony Orchestra with Semyon Bychkov, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Berliner Konzerthaus Orchestra with Peter Feranec, Orchestra and Choir of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino under Zubin Mehta, Orchestre Philharmonic de Radio France with Leonard Slatkin, in Chicago with and Chicago Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin, in Pittsburg with Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra with Manfred Honeck, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris with Paavo Järvi, National Symphony Orchestra, and the Radio Filharmonisch Orkestr in Amsterdam, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and Orchestre de Paris with Paavo Jarvi, BBC Symphony Orchestra with Semyon Bychkov on legendary at the BBC Proms. 

Tours are taking place Mr. Matsuev will tour with the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse in Europe with Tugan Sokhiev and with , the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra in the United States with Valery Gergiev. , and Thethe Sankt-St. Petersburg Philharmonic and Philharmonia Orchestra of London with Yuri Temirkanov stated Denis Matsuev to be a major soloist inin Germany and Great Britain.

Among of all Denis Matsuev will present his recitals at Carnegie Hall in New York, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Theatre des Champs Elysees in Paris. He will also returning to the World’s world-ffamous Ravinia Festival in Chicago with in both recital as well as with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in concert.

In December 2007, Sony BMG released a disc featuring Mr. Matsuev entitled Unknown Rachmaninoff, which has received strong positive reviews praising his execution and creativity.