From 15 to 23 January the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre will be hosting the VIII International Organ Festival. Alongside the harp and flute festivals, this is one of the theatre's "small" instrumental festivals and is normally held in October.
The playbill for the upcoming festival is to feature performances by five organists from St Petersburg and from France (each with their own programmes). This Franco-Russian "journey" is no chance circumstance: the organ at the Concert Hall was manufactured in France. It was designed by the company Alfred Kern et Fils from Strasbourg (Daniel Kern, son of the company's founder, came here in 2009 to install and tune the instrument), and it is the first French organ to have been built in St Petersburg. Moreover, the festival is directed by the French organist and composer Thierry Escaich, a professor at the Paris Conservatoire. St Petersburg will be welcoming Thomas Ospital and David Cassan, his students and prize-winners at the competition in Chartres – the longest-running and authoritative competition for organists. The St Petersburg musicians participating in the festival are to be Olga Kotlyarova (performing the programme A Musical Offering, constructed around Bach) and Marina Vyaizya. At the closing concert of the festival, Thierry Escaich will be performing together with the Mariinsky Orchestra.
For details of the playbill, please go to the theatre's webpage.
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