On 3 November Valery Gergiev was awarded the title of Honorary Professor of the St Petersburg Conservatoire

In 2012 Russia’s first conservatoire, founded exactly one and a half centuries ago by the outstanding pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein, marked its anniversary amid great pomp. Since it was founded, Russia’s oldest music institution has trained a plethora of internationally acclaimed musicians. Maestro Gergiev is the most prominent representative of the St Petersburg performing school and a worthy successor to the Conservatoire’s traditions; he was a pupil of the legendary Ilya Musin, a brilliant teacher and conductor. While still a student Valery Gergiev became a prize-winner at the extremely prestigious Herbert von Karajan International Conducting Competition, won the All-Union Conducting Competition in Moscow and was invited to join the Kirov (now the Mariinsky) Theatre, where, at the age of thirty-five, he was appointed Artistic Director of the opera company, becoming the theatre’s Artistic and General Director in 1996.

On 3 November maestro Gergiev was the guest of honour at the prize-giving ceremony, which took place in the Small Glazunov Hall of the Conservatoire as part of the XXII festival International Conservatory Week commemorating this Russian music institution’s anniversary. For his outstanding services to world culture, Valery Gergiev was awarded the title of Honorary Professor of the St Petersburg Conservatoire. At the start of the evening the Mariinsky Theatre Brass Ensemble performed a brass instrument arrangement of Modest Musorgsky’s Dawn on the River Moskva. Mikhail Gantvarg, Rector of the St Petersburg Conservatoire, presented Valery Gergiev with the cloak of Honorary Professor. Following the ceremony the maestro conducted a performance of Richard Strauss’ Metamorphosen with the Mariinsky Theatre’s Stradivarius Ensemble. For their encore the musicians performed an extract from Edvard Grieg’s suite From Holberg’s Time.