Valery Gergiev Presenting a Series of Piano Concerts at the Stars of the White Nights Festival

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.