• 28 days – 40 performances and concerts;
• More than five hundred performers and musicians from twelve countries;
• Concert halls in Vladivostok, Ussuriisk, South Sakhalin, Harbin (People's Republic of China), Pyeongchang (South Korea) and Tongyeong (South Korea);
• Audiences of around fifty thousand from Russia, Asia and Europe;
• An extremely broad international programme;
• The first tour by the Ballet Company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre to Harbin (People's Republic of China).

13 August saw the grand closing ceremony of the II International Far East Festival Mariinsky. The Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre hosted its first performance of Carl Orff's canata Carmina Burana with Mariinsky Theatre soloists Anastasia Kalagina, Vladimir Moroz and Stanislav Leontiev and the Symphony Orchestra and Chorus of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre under Justus Frantz (Germany).

During the festival in Vladivostok the Mariinsky Ballet presented the Far East audience with The Little Humpbacked Horse (choreography by Alexei Ratmansky.
One key event of the ballet playbill came with a performance by Vladimir Shklyarov, Principal Dancer of the Mariinsky Theatre and the Bayerisches Staatsballett, and Natalia Osipova, Prima Ballerina of London's Royal Ballet, who appeared on-stage in the Far East premiere of the ballet Marguerite and Armand (choreography by Frederick Ashton). Other significant events in the programme included gala concerts by the National Ballet of China featuring Act II from the ballet La Sylphide, the finale of the ballet Yellow River, the miniature Prelude and the ballet Song of Life. Repertoire performances by the Primorsky Stage also saw appearances by festival guests – the dazzling South Korean ballerina Soo Bin Lee and soloists of the Liaoning Ballet (China) Zhang Haidong and Yu Chuanya.

As part of the festival's international programme, the Ballet Company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre undertook its first tour. On 9 and 10 August in Harbin (China) there were performances of Adolphe Adam's ballet Le Corsaire (revised version by Eldar Aliev).

The opera playbill of the II International Far East Festival Mariinsky in Vladivostok presented audiences with a series of premieres: Giuseppe Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, Richard Wagner's Der Fliegende Holländer, Rodion Shchedrin's The Enchanted Wanderer, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's The Tsar's Bride and Mozart's Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni. The performances and concerts saw appearances by the finest soloists of the Mariinsky Opera: Tatiana Serjan, Vladislav Sulimsky, Yevgeny Nikitin, Mikhail Petrenko, Sergei Skorokhodov, Yevgeny Akimov, Elena Stikhina, Mlada Khudoley, Roman Burdenko, Yulia Matochkina, Vladimir Moroz, Vladimir Feliauer, Otar Jorjikia, Oleg Sychov, Ekaterina Sergeyeva, Anastasia Kalagina, Violetta Lukyanenko and Yevgeny Akhmedov as well as guest soloists of the Mariinsky Theatre Irina Churilova, Dmitry Grigoriev and Kirill Zharovin. Key events included performances in Vladivostok by Albina Shagimuratova, one of the world's greatest singers, and Shenyang (China), winner of the legendary BBC Cardiff Singer of the World international competition.

As part of the symphony music programme, the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre gave its first performances of works by Igor Stravinsky (Pétrouchka and Le Sacre du printemps), Rodion Shchedrin (Piano Concerto No 1), Max Bruch (Violin Concerto No 1) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Violin Concerto No 5). Soloists in the symphony music concerts included the outstanding young musicians Ziyu He, prize-winner at the XVII International Yehudi Menuhin Competition (violin, China), Kanon Matsuda, prize-winner at international competitions (piano, Japan), Daniel Lozakovich, prize-winner at the XVI International Yehudi Menuhin Competition (violin, Sweden) and Clara-Jumi Kang, prize-winner at the XV International Pyotr Tchaikovsky Competition (violin, Germany). As part of the Rachmaninoff Series, which featured all of the composer's piano concerti, the soloists were Sergei Babayan (USA), Ivan Bessonov (Russia), George Harliono (Great Britain), Ming Xie (China) and Dmitri Levkovich (Canada). Dmitri Levkovich also gave a recital and was noted by both the public and the critics. The highlight of the symphony music programme came with the first appearance in Vladivostok by the talented Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii.

At the Mariinsky festival, audiences saw the Chamber Ensemble of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre for the first time. Under violinist and conductor Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici, leader of the Münchner Philharmoniker and head of the Stradivarius Ensemble of the Mariinsky Theatre, the ensemble performed works by Johann Sebastian Bach, Ottorino Respighi, Astor Piazzolla and Antonio Vivaldi. Moreover, the festival programme also included an open master-class by Lorenz Nasturica-Herschcowici.

The new season at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will continue to perform the finest productions in its opera repertoire: Sergei Prokofiev's The Love for Three Oranges (18 August), Giacomo Puccini's Tosca (19 August), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's Die Zauberflöte (20 August) and Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin (26 August).

The Ballet Company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre set off on a tour to St Petersburg, where it will perform for the first time from 15 to 20 August at the historic Mariinsky Theatre. The next performance by the company in Vladivostok will be Giselle (25 August), while on 27 August the company will give two performances of the legendary ballet Carmen-Suite (choreography by Alberto Alonso).

From 15 to 20 August the Mariinsky Theatre (historic stage) will be hosting a tour by the Ballet Company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre (Vladivostok) for the first time. The playbill includes the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre's production of The Firebird with choreography by Eldar Aliev, as well as productions already familiar to St Petersburg audiences – the ballets Apollo by Balanchine and Giselle by Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa. The best dancers of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre are embarking on their first tour to St Petersburg, immediately upon the close of the II International Far East Festival Mariinsky on 13 August.

To mark one hundred and thirty-five years since the birth of Igor Stravinsky the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky will be presenting an eveing of one-act ballets to music by the composer. The programme includes: The Firebird with choreography by Eldar Aliev, Principal Ballet Master of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, and a 2016-17 Primorsky Stage premiere – George Balanchine's Apollo. The performances will take place on 15, 16, 19 and 20 August at 19.00.

For its classical production for the tour, the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre has selected Adolphe Adam's fantasy ballet Giselle with choreography by Jean Coralli, Jules Perrot and Marius Petipa. The lead roles will be performed by leading soloists of the Primorsky Stage Irina Sapozhnikova and Sergei Umanets (17 and 18 August at 19.00) and Anna Samostrelova and Kanat Nadybrek (20 August at 12.00).

The Ballet Company of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre is an international ensemble featuring dancers from Russia, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Japan, Brasil, the USA, Great Britain, Italy and Spain. The company's soloists and other dancers are diploma and prize-recipients of international competitions and grant-recipients of major foundations. The ballet playbill of the Primorsky Stage includes the classical ballets Swan Lake, The Sleeping Beauty and The Nutcracker by Pyotr Tchaikovsky and Giselle and Le Corsaire by Adolphe Adam. Choreography of the 20^th and 21^st centuries is represented by Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird staged by Eldar Aliev, Alberto Alonso's Carmen-Suite to music by Georges Bizet – Rodion Shchedrin and George Balanchine's one-act ballets Apollo, Prodigal Son, Serenade and Scotch Symphony.

The Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra are concluding their tour to the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, in London (Great Britain), which runs from 24 July to 12 August. Every three years, the Mariinsky Ballet takes the finest productions in its repertoire to the British capital. This year British audiences were presented with Swan Lake, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Anna Karenina and the programme Contrasts, which included Carmen-Suite, Infra and Paquita "Grand pas".

The tour opened on 24 July with a series of performances of the ballet Don Quixote by Ludwig Minkus featuring leading soloists of the Mariinsky Ballet. Critic of the portal The ArtsDesk.com Hanna Weibye lavished praise on the ballet: "Tasteful design and perfectly poised dancers in classy first outing for Russians visiting the Royal Opera House." The reviewer of The Stage newspaper was thrilled by the performers of the lead roles: "Don Q is really a vehicle for its principal couple: Viktoria Tereshkina and Kimin Kim are stunning. The latter has the boisterous exuberance and enjoyably manic energy of a kitten, then dashes off magnificent pantherine leaps and masterfully controlled turns. Tereshkina brings glamourpuss sass and sureness, etching the prancing pointe-work of her variation with sly wit, shaping legato passages with silkily nuanced phrasing." Among the performers of other roles, compliments rained down on Yekaterina Chebykina as the Queen of the Dryads "who moves with expansive grace and warmth", the "dashing fandango from Elena Bazhenova and a lively Mercedes from Olga Belik." The Independent

After performances of Don Quixote, the Mariinsky Ballet presented its "calling card" – Pyotr Tchaikovsky's ballet Swan Lake with choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov. On 27 July after the performance it was announced that Xander Parish, who performed the role of Prince Siegfried that evening, had been made a Principal Dancer of the Mariinsky Ballet. News of the St Petersburg company's first British dancer's promotion caused a furore among UK journalists.

Speaking of the performances, the critics unanimously praised the art, precision and elegance of the performers of the lead roles: Ekaterina Kondaurova was an expressive Odette and a vivid and fervent Odile, Viktoria Tereshkina, tender and vulnerable in the "white" acts, captivated with her temptations in the "black" act, Xander Parish's Siegfried was remarkable for his character, gallantry and, at the same time, his boyish naivety, while Andrei Yermakov as von Rothbart was compared with a soaring demon. Also of note were Nadezhda Batoeva and Sofia Ivanova-Skoblikova, who "were gracious, precise and ethereal as the Prince's friends." The Independent.
The highest praise fell on the Mariinsky Theatre corps de ballet. Clement Crisp, one of the oldest and most respected British ballet critics, wrote of the performance in his review for The Financial Times that "The Mariinsky’s performance on Friday night was honourable: the legion of swan-maidens spoke of elegance of means, vital traditions, impeccable style. The third act mazurka was a marvel. Splendid decors. A fine orchestra." Sarah Crompton (The Guardian) commented on the unity of the ensemble: "When those swan girls of the corps de ballet swoop across the stage in flawless, absolutely understood unison, creating a fretwork of perfectly placed legs and arms, heads and hands delicately inclined and shaped, you reach the heart of why a visit to London by the Mariinsky is such an event, and why it is one of the world’s great ballet companies."

The the tour programme's contemporary ballets, which received mixed reviews, critics commented on the invariably high quality of the performances, particularly focussing on the Mariinsky Theatre's prima ballerinas. Louise Levene (Financial Times) wrote of the ballet Anna Karenina: "Konstantin Zverev is a fine dancer and a noble partner but the piece is, inevitably, a star vehicle and Vishneva is that star. Her technique and stamina appear undiminished. Weightless legs still tick into high extensions and the spine has lost none of its plasticity, but it is in the ballet’s rare moments of stillness that she truly excels. When Karenin – the impressive Viktor Baranov – denies access to their son, she lets her hands fall slowly to her sides, her body seeming to shrivel with shock, distilling a lifetime of Juliets, Odettes and Tatianas into the embodiment of despair."

This interpretation of Wayne McGregor's ballet Infra, created for London's Royal Ballet, roused great interest among the critics: "It was fascinating to see their Vaganova-trained bodies perform these steps, and the physical and emotional heft they brought to McGregor’s little vignettes of human interaction (or lack of it) was quite hypnotic. The passage where Ekaterina Kondaurova (...) crumpled in solitary devastation, as dozens of her colleagues strode unseeingly past her, was a hauntingly vivid picture of existential angst." The Telegraph

The Paquita "Grand pas" was acclaimed as ideal for the St Petersburg company: "Whilst they’re a staple in gala evenings, grand pas are harder to appreciate out of the context of the ballets from which they are taken, however the Mariinsky was excellent in this final bouquet. Throughout, the corps sections, variations and the pas de deux, faultless technique, impeccable musicality and stylistic precision demonstrated the company is still, by far, one of the very best classical ballet ensembles in the world," concluded Alexandra Desvignes from the portal Bachtrack in her review of An Evening of Contrasts. Meanwhile, Mark Monahan, dance critic for The Telegraph, again picked out certain performers: "Vladimir Shklyarov made a splendid Andrés – but this ballet belonged to Viktoria Tereshkina. She served up a Paquita of such technical exactitude, unfettered energy and cheeky, nanosecond-sharp musicality that it was impossible not to leave with an exhilarated spring in your step."

The tour by the Mariinsky Ballet and Orchestra at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, comes to a close on 12 August with a performance of Ludwig Minkus' ballet La Bayadère featuring choreography by Marius Petipa (1877), revised version by Vladimir Ponomarev and Vakhtang Chabukiani (1941).

On 30 July Pyotr Tchaikovsky's opera Eugene Onegin at the Mariinsky Theatre concluded the 2016-17 season which ran for forty-three weeks.

On the eve of the opening of the 2017-18 season the Mariinsky II will host several ballet events: Alexei Ratmansky's production of Sergei Prokofiev's Cinderella on 6 and 7 September, the one-act ballets Carmen-Suite and Le Carnaval on 9 September and Carmen-Suite and the scene Le Jardin animé from the ballet Le Corsaire on 10 September. On 8 September at the Mariinsky II there will be a performance by the Beijing Sunshine Art Delegation creative ensemble.
The opening of the 2017-18 season at the Mariinsky II will come on 12 September – under the baton of Valery Gergiev soloists of the Mariinsky Opera and the Mariinsky Orchestra will present a premiere from the 2016-17 season – Francesco Cilea's opera Adriana Lecouvreur.

The Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre will open on 11 September with a performance by Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra. The programme includes Alexander Mosolov's Factory. Machine Music and Anton Bruckner's Third Symphony.

Performances will begin at the historic Mariinsky Theatre on 23 September.

Results of the 2016-17 season in figures
• Performances and concerts were held at all seven venues: the historic Mariinsky Theatre, the Concert Hall and the Mariinsky II and its four chamber halls;
• There were one thousand four hundred and thirty-six performances and concerts in total with a combined attendance rate of over 90%;
• Twenty-four opera premieres, including five in the series Six Little Operas for Children (aged 3+), five in the series Six Little Operas for Children (aged 7+) and five in the series Six Little Operas for Adults, as well as four ballet premieres;
• Nine festivals in St Petersburg, the IX Music Festival To Mstislav Rostropovich in Samara, the XVI Moscow Easter Festival marking one hundred and thirty-five years since the birth of Igor Stravinsky, which was held in seventy-seven Russian towns and cities covering twenty regions, and the II International Far East Festival Mariinsky (Vladivostok), which runs until 13 August;
• New projects for new audiences – the programme The Mariinsky for Children: in the 2016-17 more than a hundred thousand young spectators attended various performances and cultural and educational programmes at the theatre, and the new festival of children's music and theatre workshops The Mariinsky for Children: Children at the Mariinsky presented audiences with productions by four children's musical theatres and workshops in St Petersburg;
• Concerts by prize-winners of the XV International Tchaikovsky Competition and the Hamburg TONALi competition;

Season premieres
• Richard Strauss' opera Salome was staged at the Mariinsky II by director Marat Gatsalov, marking his debut as an opera director;
• Giuseppe Verdi's opera I vespri siciliani (Stage Director – Arnaud Bernard) was performed by Ildar Abdrazakov, Maria Guleghina, Vladislav Sulimsky, Migran Agadzhanyan and Mariinsky Opera soloists;
• Francesco Cilea's opera Adriana Lecouvreur staged by Isabelle Partiot-Pieri was performed for the first time at the Mariinsky II during the XXV Stars of the White Nights music festival. The lead roles were performed by Anna Netrebko, Ekaterina Semenchuk, Yusif Eyvazov and Alexei Markov;
• Two operas for children and their parents were staged at the Concert Hall by Mstislav Pentkovsky: Brundibár by Hans Krása and The Diary of Anne Frank by Grigory Frid;
• Under the direction of Larisa Gergiev, soloists of the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers presented two major stage premieres – Sergei Banevich's opera The Story of Kai and Gerda, revived at the Mariinsky Theatre by Alexei Stepanyuk, and Alexander Kuzin's production of Rodion Shchedrin's opera Not Love Alone. There was a concert performance of the world premiere of Boris Grabovsky's opera Woe from Wit and the St Petersburg premiere of Alexander Tchaikovsky's opera Chess King;
• The first ballet premiere of the season, commemorating two significant events – the 90^th birthday of Yuri Grigorovich and one hundred and twenty-five years since the birth of Sergei Prokofiev, came with Sergei Prokofiev's The Stone Flower staged by Yuri Grigorovich;
• The XVII International Ballet Festival Mariinsky opened with a premiere of the ballet Paquita to music by Édouard Deldevez, Ludwig Minkus and Riccardo Drigo and staged by Yuri Smekalov with the reconstruction and staging of Marius Petipa's choreography (the Grand Pas from Act III) by Yuri Burlak;
• Ballet premieres at the XXV Stars of the White Nights music festival included Ilya Zhivoi's The Four Seasons to music by Max Richter (after motifs by Antonio Vivaldi;
• The final major premiere of the  Stars of the White Nights festival and the 2016-17 season at the Mariinsky Theatre was Boris Tishchenko's ballet Yaroslavna. The Eclipse with choreography by Vladimir Varnava;
• The Creative Workshop of Young Choreographers, which was held this year for the fifth time, became an international project including works by international (Guilherme Maciel and Garrett Smith) and Russian ballet masters (Olga Vasilieva, Maxim Petrov, Ilya Zhivoi and Vladimir Varnava). The workshop saw the premiere of the project Dreamers;
• The subscription Little Operas for Children, which this season was split into two age categories – children aged 3+ and children aged 7+, included premieres at the chamber venues of the Mariinsky II: Gennady Gladkov's The Town Musicians of Bremen, Grayr Khanedanian's Adalmina's Pearl, Benjamin Britten's The Little Sweep, Yuri Levitin's Wash'em Clean, Dmitry Shostakovich's The Silly Little Mouse, Rustam Sagdiev's The Turnip, Svetlana Nesterova's The Treasures of the Magic Well, Leonid Klinichev's The Little Prince and The Wooden House and Sergei Banevich's The Brave Hare;
• As part of the subscription Little Operas for Adults there were premiere performances of Yuri Butsko's Diary of a Madman, Leonid Klinichev's Zinaida, Grigory Korchmar's Newlyweds, Mikael Tariverdiev's Expectation and Grigory Frid's Letters of Van Gogh.

Marking one hundred and thirty-five years since the birth of Igor Stravinsky
The Mariinsky Theatre dedicated 2017 to Igor Stravinsky. In the 2016-17 season at the Mariinsky Theatre's venues in St Petersburg and Vladivostok there were performances of his ballets and symphony music, and many of the composer’s works were included in the Mariinsky Orchestra's tour programmes.

On 2 December the Year of Stravinsky opened at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre with the world premiere of the symphonic work Funeral Song. On 17 June, Igor Stravinsky's birthday, all of the theatre's venues performed the composer's music – during the day at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre an ensemble of Mariinsky Orchestra musicians under Ivan Stolbov and performers from the Mariinsky Children's Studio performed L'Histoire du soldat, and in the evening under Valery Gergiev there was a grand Stravinsky Gala concert featuring Pavel Milyukov (violin), Sergei Redkin (piano), Zarina Shimanskaya (piano), Eduard Kiprsky (piano), Alisa Dukhovlinova (piano), Irina Vasilieva (soprano), Nadezhda Serdyuk (mezzo-soprano), Alexander Timchenko (tenor) and Gennady Bezzubenkov (bass). The Mariinsky Theatre hosted performances of the ballets The Firebird and Pétrouchka, while the Stravinsky Foyer of the Mariinsky II saw music by the composer performed by the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center.

Festivals
• The IX Music Festival To Mstislav Rostropovich ran in Samara on 3 and 4 October 2016. Valery Gergiev conducted soloists of the Mariinsky Opera, the Academy of Young Opera Singers, the Chorus and Orchestra;
• The IV International Organ Festival presented acclaimed musicians: Thierry Escaich, Gunnar Idenstam, Benjamin Righetti, Daniil Protsyuk, Ansgar Wallenhorst and Thomas Ospital;
• For the first time at the chamber venues of the Mariinsky II there was the festival Virtuosi of the Flute. Flute music from different eras and styles – from the Baroque to contemporary works – was performed by Mariinsky Orchestra soloists. There were master-classes by one of the greatest Russian flautists – Denis Bouriakov;
• The XI International Piano Festival. Participants included Mira Yevtich, Anastasia Volchok, Anna Denisova, Nicholas Angelich, Sergei Babayan, Abisal Gergiev, Andrey Gugnin, Lucas Debargue, Stanislav Korchagin, Roman Martynov, Nikolai Medvedev, Vladimir Milošević, Nuron Mukumi, Boris Petrushansky, Pavel Raikerus, Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev, Daniil Trifonov, Vladimir Tropp, Jean-Baptiste Fonlupt, Moye Chen, Seong-Jin Cho and Lucas and Arthur Jussen. For the second year, the festival included the project From Children to Children, during which the chamber venues of the Mariinsky II hosted performances by young virtuosi;
• The II International Choral Festival Maslenitsa in Song saw the involvement of ensembles from Russia, Slovenia, Norway, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania and France. One key event of the festival came with the premiere of the children's opera Brundibár by Hans Krása staged by Mstislav Pentkovsky and featuring the Mariinsky Chorus and Orchestra, the Children's Chorus of St Petersburg TV and Radio and the chorus of the Mariinsky Children's Studio;
• The XVII International Ballet Festival Mariinsky hosted stars from the Bolshoi Theatre, English National Ballet and Het Nationale Ballet. The festival's guest company was the Perm Tchaikovsky Opera and Ballet Theatre;
• The first harp festival The Silver Lyre was held in memory of Countess Yoko Nagae Ceschina, thanks to whom many projects of the Mariinsky Theatre have been made possible;
• In developing our work with children's audiences we established a new project – The Mariinsky to Children festival of children's musical theatres and studios, as part of which artists from four of St Petersburg's children's musical theatres presented their works;
• The Mariinsky NEXT festival of children's and youth orchestras was held for the third time, and it saw the participation of ensembles from nine music schools, art schools, colleges and training schools of St Petersburg;
• The XVI Moscow Easter Festival, which ran from 16 April to 9 May, was dedicated to the one hundred and thirty-fifth anniversary of the birth of Igor Stravinsky and visited seventy-seven Russian towns and cities in twenty Russian regions;
• The anniversary XXV Stars of the White Nights Music Festival lasted 59 days. While it was running at the Mariinsky Theatre, the Mariinsky II and the Concert Hall there were two hundred and five events including one ballet and two opera premieres;
• The II International Far East Festival Mariinsky in Vladivostok is currently running in Vladivostok, from 15 July to 13 August. During the month there will be over forty performances and concerts at seven Far East concert venues – in Vladivostok, Ussuriysk and Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, as well as in Pyeongchang and Tongyeong (South Korea) and Harbin (China).

One of the key trends in the theatre's activities is its cultural and educational projects. We have organised the free weekly concerts Open Wednesday at the Mariinsky and Arts Schools Visiting the Mariinsky Theatre. We have successful continued the subscription series The Academy of Young Theatre-Goers and Piccolo at the Mariinsky and the cultural and educational programmes A Lesson in Practical Theatre Studies, The Mariinsky Theatre – The Soul of St Petersburg, A Theatre Lesson at the Mariinsky and We Are an Orchestra. For adult audiences the theatre offered lecture programmes – A Sunday Foreword and lectures focussing on outstanding musicians and performers of the Mariinsky Theatre.

Tours at the Mariinsky Theatre's venues:
• The Turku Philharmonic Orchestra;
• The Moscow State Academic Chamber Chorus;
• The Symphonica ARTica orchestra;
• The Moscow Soloists chamber ensemble;
• The Nizhny-Novgorod Academic Symphony Orchestra;
• The All-Russian Youth Symphony Orchestra;
• The Buryat State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre Named after People's Artist of the USSR G. Ts. Tsydynzhapov;
• The State Opera and Ballet Theatre of the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia);
• The Omsk Academic Symphony Orchestra;
• The Pratum Integrum orchestra;
• The Wiener Sängerknaben;
• The Chinese TV and Radio Orchestra of Shaanxi Province;
• The Astana Opera theatre;
• The Chanticleer vocal ensemble;
• The Utopia & Reality chamber chorus;
• The ensemble Le Poème harmonique;
• The Intrada vocal ensemble;
• The State Symphony Orchestra of the Republic of Tatarstan;
• The Stavanger Symphony Orchestra;
• The Symphony Orchestra of the Karelian State Philharmonic;
• The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra;
• The Sibelius Academy Cello Ensemble;
• The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center;
• The Russian-German Academy of Music;
• Philharmonix;
• The State Borodin Quartet

Mariinsky Theatre tours
In the 2016-17 season the Mariinsky Theatre (chorus, opera company, ballet company and orchestra) toured to twenty-two countries across the globe, and the theatre's performances were seen in eighty Russian towns and cities and in forty abroad. Lead soloists of the theatre's ballet company presented the finest repertoire productions at theatre venues in cities in the USA, Germany, Great Britain, Austria and China.

During the II Far East Festival Mariinsky, which runs from 15 July to 13 August, the Mariinsky Theatre will be presenting a vivid international programme.

On 29 and 30 July the Mariinsky Orchestra, soloists of the Opera Company and the Mariinsky Academy of Young Opera Singers together with the National Chorus of Korea will appear at the Pyeongchang Music Festival (South Korea), the capital city where the Winter Olympic Games will be held in 2018. On 29 July at the Alpensia Music Tent there will be a concert performance of Sergei Prokofiev's opera The Love for Three Oranges. The following day will see a gala concert, the programme to include arias from the operas Boris Godunov, Khovanshchina, The Tsar's Bride, Eugene Onegin and Prince Igor as well as Pyotr Tchaikovsky's cantata Moscow and highlights from Sergei Rachmaninoff's All-Night Vigil.

The vocal roles will be performed by: Margarita Ivanova (soprano), Yekaterina Shimanovich (soprano), Evelina Agabalaeva (mezzo-soprano), Olga Bobrovskaya (mezzo-soprano), Yulia Matochkina (mezzo-soprano), Elena Sommer (mezzo-soprano), Andrei Ilyushnikov (tenor), Artyom Melikhov (tenor), Yaroslav Petryanik (baritone), Alexander Gerasimov (bass baritone), Askar Abdrazakov (bass), Ilya Bannik (bass), Yuri Vorobiev (bass) and Pavel Shmulevich (bass). The programmes for both evenings will be conducted by Zaurbek Gugkaev.

On 2 August the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev will appear at the Tongyeong Concert Hall (South Korea).

The Mariinsky Theatre will then return to Vladivostok, where on 3 August there will be a performance at the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's opera Don Giovanni featuring Albina Shagimuratova, Mlada Khudoley, Yevgeny Nikitin and Mikhail Petrenko. On 4 and 5 August at the Primorsky Stage there will be a Rachmaninoff Cycle, including all of the composer's piano concerti featuring pianists from Russia, the USA, Canada, China and Great Britain. The grand gala programme to mark one hundred and thirty-five years since the birth of Igor Stravinsky on 6 August will see a performance by the Combined Mariinsky Orchestra (St Petersburg) and the Primorsky Stage (Vladivostok). Valery Gergiev will be conducting.

From 7 to 10 August the Mariinsky Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will be appearing at the II China-Russia Festival of Culture and Arts in Harbin (China). On 7 August at the Harbin Grand Theatre Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Orchestra will present a programme of works by Pyotr Tchaikovsky (Symphony No 5) and Max Bruch (Violin Concerto No 1). Daniel Lozakovich will be the soloist.

On 9 and 10 August at the Harbin Grand Theatre there will be a performance by the ballet company and symphony orchestra of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre. The production selected for the tour is the ballet Le Corsaire staged by Eldar Aliev, Principal Ballet Master of the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre, (featuring highlights of the choreography by Marius Petipa). The lead roles will be performed by: Irina Sapozhnikova and Arina Nagase (Medora), Kanat Hadyrbek and Oleksy Skalyun (Conrad), Anna Samostrelova (Gulnare) and Sergei Umanets (Lankendem).

At the same time, Valery Gergiev will be appearing with the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra in cities throughout Japan. From 27 July to 1 August the orchestra under maestro Gergiev will present a programme of works by Franz Schubert, Richard Wagner and Max Bruch in Tomakomai, Sapporo, Kawasaki and Tokyo.

For Xander Parish, the 234^th season will conclude with a career promotion: he has reached the highest echelon of the ballet company's hierarchy, becoming a principal dancer. Trained in the British school, in the seven years he has worked at the Mariinsky Theatre under the guidance of legendary St Petersburg coaches, Xander Parish has assimmilated the style of the Petersburg school of classical dance. Today his repertoire includes many lead roles in both classical ballets and in contemporary choreography. In the season now drawing to a close, Xander has appeared in two theatre premieres, performing the core roles in Paquita and The Seasons. Parish's artistic achievements have resulted in several international awards, the most prestigious of which for the Englishman has been the British Critics' Circle National Dance Award. And today, during tours by the Mariinsky Ballet to Great Britain's Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, the dancer's performances are attracting heightened interest from the London critics.

From 27 July to 1 August Valery Gergiev will host a series of concerts with the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra. Four Japanese cities will see performances of Franz Schubert's Ninth Symphony, the overture from Richard Wagner's opera Tannhäuser and Max Bruch's First Violin Concerto, the solo being performed by Rainer Küchl (27 July), who for many years held the post of concert master of the Wiener Philharmoniker, and young Swedish virtuoso violinist Daniel Lozakovich (29 July – 1 August).

On 27 July the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra will appear under maestro Gergiev at the Shimin Kaikan Concert Hall in Tomakomai. The orchestra's subsequent performances will take place in Sapporo: on 29 July at the Sapporo Concert Hall Kitara there will be a gala evening, and on 30 July at the Sapporo Art Park's outdoor stage the musicians will present the festival's traditional open-to-all Picnic concert. Both programmes in Sapporo comprise sections: the matinée, as well as musicians of the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra, will feature the Otani University Chorus (Sapporo) and vocalist Aki Amo (soprano). The programme includes Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's motet Exsultate, jubilate and the Pacific Music Festival's anthem Jupiter set to music from a highlight from Gustav Holst's symphonic suite The Planets. The evening section will again see performances of works by Franz Schubert, Richard Wagner and Max Bruch.

On 31 July the Pacific Music Festival Orchestra will appear under Valery Gergiev at the Muza Kawasaki Symphony Hall. The culmination of the music forum comes with a final concert at one of Japan's largest venues - the Bunka Kaikan in Tokyo (1 August).

The Pacific Ocean Music Festival, of which Valery Gergiev has been Artistic Director since 2015, was founded by Leonard Bernstein in 1990. The festival's orchestra is a youth ensemble of ninety musicians aged between 18 and 29, who are selected following auditions across the globe. Over four weeks the young musicians hone their skills under the guidance of conductors and musicians from renowned symphony orchestras in order later to present well-rehearsed programmes at Japan's leading concert venues. To date the project has involved over three thousand three hundred young musicians from seventy-six countries throughout the world.

The Mariinsky Ballet returns to the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden (London, the United Kingdom) with the Mariinsky Orchestra from July 24 to August 12. The company will present another three-week season of many spectacular ballets such as Swan Lake, Don Quixote, La Bayadère, Anna Karenina, as well as the programme of one-act pieces Contrasts.

The Mariinsky Ballet opens its London season with Alexander Gorsky’s production (1902) of Ludwig Minkus’ Don Quixote after Marius Petipa’s classic. The Mariinsky Ballet’s leading soloists are set to perform in the production (July 24 – July 26). One more performance will

also take place on August 5. The Mariinsky Theatre’s signature production – Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake – with choreography by Marius Petipa and Lev Ivanov (1895), adapted by Konstantin Sergeev (1950), is leading in the number of performances this year (eight performances, all of which are already sold out). Different sets of Mariinsky artistes are going to take part in the performances, which will run from July 27 to August 2, and on August 7.

This London season’s contemporary highlights include Rodion Shchedrin’s Anna Karenina, choreographed by Alexei Ratmansky and starring Diana Vishneva (August 3) and Viktoria Tereshkina (August 4) in the title role, as well as Contrasts programme (August 8 and August 9). The programme features Carmen Suite, choreographed by Alberto Alonso; Infra, staged by Wayne MacGregor, who first custom-created the production for the London Royal Ballet company and then adapted it for the St. Petersburg dancers in 2014; Grand pas from the ballet Paquita, revived by Yuri Burlaka for the recent premiere of Yuri Smekalov’s production at the Mariinsky Theatre.

The season concludes with the performances of Ludwig Minkus’ La Bayadère with choreography by Marius Petipa (1877), adapted by Vladimir Ponomarev and Vakhtang Chabukiani (1941), and featuring dances by Konstantin Sergeev and Nikolai Zubkovsky. The performances will take place from August 10 to August 12.

This London season British theatre-goers will be able to enjoy not only the performing skills of the company’s leading soloists, who are well-known all over the globe, but also young artistes. The London playbill will be graced by the names of Diana Vishneva, Ekaterina Kondaurova, Viktoria Tereshkina, Nadezhda Batoeva, Elena Yevseyeva, Anastasia Matvienko, Yekaterina Osmolkina, Yekaterina Chebykina, Renata Shakirova, Timur Askerov, Evgeny Ivanchenko, Kimin Kim, Vladimir Shklyarov, Andrei Yermakov, Konstantin Zverev, Xander Parish, Alexander Sergeev, Philipp Stepin, Ernest Latypov, and Roman Belyakov.

The Mariinsky Orchestra will perform under the baton of conductors Boris Gruzin and Alexei Repnikov.

The Mariinsky Opera, Choir and Orchestra are set to perform at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden Summer Festival (Germany) from July 20 to July 23. The festival itself runs from July 6 to July 23. The traditional music forum held at one of the largest opera and concert houses in Europe will close with a programme of symphony and opera productions under the direction of Valery Gergiev.

The highlight of the Mariinsky Theatre’s tour is Alexei Stepanyuk’s production of Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s opera Eugene Onegin. The parts of Eugene Onegin and Tatiana will be performed by Alexei Markov and Maria Bayankina (July 20), Roman Burdenko and Yekaterina Goncharova (July 23). The role of Lensky will be performed by Yevgeny Akhmedov, the role of Olga – by Yekaterina Sergeyeva, and the role of Prince Gremin – by Mikhail Petrenko, on both occasions. Valery Gergiev is to conduct the performances.

Valery Gergiev and the Mariinsky Theatre are to present symphonic programmes on July 21 and July 22. The first night will be dedicated to the works of Sergei Rachmaninoff and will see the performances of the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and his poem The Bells for soloists, choir, and orchestra. The performers for the night are Maria Bayankina (soprano), Yevgeny Akhmedov (tenor), and Alexei Markov (baritone). Behzod Abduraimov, an Uzbek virtuoso pianist, will perform the piano concerto. The winner of the 2015 International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw and Korean phenomenon Seong-Jin Cho will perform Chopin’s two piano concertos together with Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev on July 22. Frédéric Chopin holds a special place in the pianist’s repertoire. The programme for the night also includes Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7.

In July, at the XXV Stars of the White Nights Festival, the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre will host a series of symphonic concerts featuring young talented pianists.

On July 17, at 20.00, the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre will welcome George Li who was awarded the Silver Medal at the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition. He will perform Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev. The programme also includes Rodion Shchedrin's Concerto dolce for viola, strings and harp and Concerto parlando for violin, trumpet and strings featuring Olga Volkova (violin), Yuri Afonkin (viola), Sofia Kiprskaya (harp), Timur Martynov (trumpet).

On July 18, the Concert Hall will host two concerts featuring brilliant pianists and the orchestra under the baton of Valery Gergiev. At 18.00 Seong Jin Cho, a Korean prodigy, will perform Chopin's two piano concerti, the gem of his repertoire. In 2015 Seong Jin Cho was awarded the First Prize at the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw, becoming the first Korean to win the competition. The record of his competition performance went platinum in Korea and gold in Poland, Chopin's homeland. The program also includes Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 7. At 21.00 the Concert Hall will host Behzod Abduraimov, another virtuoso pianist of the new generation. He will perform Sergei Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 and the choral symphony The Bells featuring Maria Bayankina (soprano), Yevgeny Akhmedov (tenor), and Alexei Markov (baritone).

The Festival's symphonic programme will conclude with Yeol Eum Son, one of South Korea's leading pianists, performing the works of Igor Stravinsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Rodion Shchedrin, and Maurice Ravel, with the Mariinsky Orchestra under the baton of Singaporean conductor Darrell Ang.