Yuri Bashmet International Music Festival | Artistic Director - Rostislav Krimer

The Yuri Bashmet International Music Festival is taking place annually since 2006 in Minsk, Belarus. The festival concerts took place also in all regions of Belarus as well as in Grand Hall of the Moscow Conservatory, Beethovenhalle in Bonn and other places.

The Bashmet Festival became one of the most important music events in Europe not only because the best artists of our time are performing on it’s stage, but also because of a special format and dialogue with the festival audience, which it’s Artistic Director Rostislav Krimer holds.

Best artists of our time took part at the Festival – Maxim Vengerov, Vadim Repin, Gidon Kremer, Julian Rachlin, Viktor Tretyakov, Yuri Bashmet, Mario Brunello, Natalia Gutman, Paul Badura-Skoda, Barry Douglas, Nikolai Lugansky, Fazil Say so as Grammy-Winners Chamber ensembles “Moscow Soloists” and “Kremerata Baltica”, State Symphony Orchestra “Novaya Rossiya”, Camerata of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Soloists of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Soloists of Bolshoi and Marrinsky Theatres, Ural Philharmonic Orchestra among many other great names.

One of the most important messages of the Festival is promoting of contemporary music. Greatest composers of our time, such as Krzysztof Penderecki, Sofia Gubaidulina, Giya Kancheli, Peteris Vasks, Erkki-Sven Tüür among others have been honorary guests of the Festival during premieres of their music in Minsk and gave lections at the Belarus Music Academy. Annually, the Festival is ordering a world premiere for contemporary composers, which is played during the Bashmet Festival by the Symphony Orchestra.

Innovations of the festival include numerous cross-over projects for wide audience and youth. Projects like “Classic meets Jazz” with the concert of Jean-Luc Ponty on his 70th Birthday, “Three “B” Classic, Pop and Jazz” with Yuri Bashmet, “Moscow Soloists”, “Bravo Band”, Igor Butman and his Band, “Classic meets Rock” with "Okean Elzy" and Orchestra, “Music and Circus” with orchestra on arena and gymnasts above with music of Tchaikovsky and Berlioz, "Carmen Evening" with Mariinsky, Bolshoi and Kiev Theatres, prima-ballerina Uliana Lopatkina, opera soloists, Yuri Bashmet and Symphony Orchestra "Novaya Rossiya", “Music and Poetry”, “Music and Painting”, “Classic meets Folk” and a lot more.

The Festival feels important to bring young generation to classical music and making it with great success. The audience of the festival since 2006 became younger almost for 15 years, and average age today is 40.

The Visiting card of the Festival traditionally includes philanthropic projects such as numerous master-classes of famous musicians, lections and meetings with great artists, free entrance of best music students to festival concerts as well as charity concerts.

As a special project, during the Bashmet Fetstival for three times took place the CIS Youth Music Academy, where best young talents from the CIS-Countries and best professors from Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, London, Berlin and Paris gathered in Minsk. Young artists had a chance not only of getting free lessons by great professors so as free flights and accommodation, but also the chance to play on one stage with amazing artists and attend all the festival concerts. This was the first project of such an art in the former USSR territory and had no analogues.

The orchestra-in-residence of the festival is the orchestra-for-Peace East-West Chamber Orchestra which gathers best artists - laureates of Tchaikovsky, Elisabeth, ARD including Stradivaris and Guarneri instruments - representatives of various religions and countries.

The grounder, Artistic Director and Co-Chairman of the State Organizing Committee of the Bashmet Festival is famous pianist Rostislav Krimer. The Honorary Co-Chairman of the Festival is great violist and conductor Yuri Bashmet.