On May 22, the XIX International Musical Olympus Festival opened in St Petersburg. The first concert of the Festival took place at the Concert Hall of the Mariinsky Theatre.

The Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sergey Smbatyan (Armenia) performed the symbolic ouverture “Vivat, Olympus!” written by composer Andrey Petrov specially for the opening of the first Musical Olympus Festival.

Marc Bouchkov from Belgium, 1 prize winner of the Montreal International Musical Competition (Canada), gave a brilliant interpretation of the violin concerto by Jean Sibelius. Soprano Hrachuhi Bassenz, prize winner of the International Competition for Verdian Voices (Busseto, Italy), and Yuri Vlasov, prize winner at the Elena Obraztsova International Young Opera Singers' Competition, presented to the audience classical arias from the world operas.

And on May, 23 the audience witnessed a global premiere: Samuele Telari, 1 prize winner of the International Young Musicians Competition Prize "Antonio Salieri" (Italy), performed concerto for accordion and orchestra by Italian composer Enrico Blatti for the first time at the St. Petersburg State Academic Capella.