New Honorary President appointed to Edinburgh International Festival

Valery Gergiev is the new Honorary President of the Edinburgh International Festival. The Russian conductor, whose association with the Festival began 20 years ago, is only the third person to be invited to take up the position.

Gergiev said: ‘I am delighted to be named as Honorary President of the Edinburgh International Festival Society.

‘I can easily celebrate my 20 years with the Edinburgh International Festival, it is a wonderful place to visit. We artists come here with a tremendous sense of responsibility and excitement. I very much hope that the Festival continues to thrive and flourish and I am very privileged to be part of its future.’

In 1991 the maestro brought the Kirov Opera, now known as the Mariinsky Opera, to the festival, performing Mussorgsky’s opera Khovanshchina at the Edinburgh Playhouse and a series of concerts of Mussorgsky’s work at the Usher Hall.

Thereafter he returned with the Kirov in 1995 with Glinka’s Ruslan and Lyudmila, Rimsky Korsakov’s Sadko and The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh, in 1997 performing three programmes of Prokofiev, in 2008 as the Mariinsky Opera performing Szymanowski’s Król Roger and Shchedrin’s The Enchanted Wanderer as well as Rachmaninov’s Aleko and Prokofiev’s Semyon Kotko. He has also appeared at the Festival at the helm of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the London Symphony Orchestra in a series of concerts focusing on the works of Prokofiev.

Jonathan Mills, Festival Director, said: ‘Valery Gergiev has brought the Festival many outstanding performances with the Mariinsky Opera, London Symphony Orchestra and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and is hugely popular with Festival audiences. In honour of his dedication and enthusiasm for the Festival and because his artistic values parallel those of the Edinburgh International Festival, I am very proud to announce Valery Gergiev as the Festival’s Honorary President, and we are delighted that he has accepted this position. Not only is he a superb talent, he is a truly international figure and a great humanitarian.

‘I am certain that the Mariinsky Opera’s stunning production of Strauss’s epic Die Frau ohne Schatten will move and entertain audiences. The opera continues till Saturday and there are still a very few tickets remaining. I urge everyone to get along and enjoy this wonderfully sung, spectacularly staged, huge production. The Festival very much looks forward to continuing and developing our relationship with Valery Gergiev into the future.’

The previous Honorary Presidents of the festival were Yehudi Menuhin and Charles Mackerras.