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| Britten Festival Kyiv 2004, the inaugural edition of the Kyiv Festival, was
held under the auspices of the Benjamin Britten International Violin
Competition London. The Britten Competition is owned and operated by
a London academic institution whose patron is HM The
Queen. The aims of the first Kyiv Festival were not only to promote the
Britten Competition in Ukraine and provide the platform on which one of the
future editions of the Competition could be brought to Kyiv, but also to
promote British music as a whole and the works of Benjamin Britten in
particular, to support Ukrainian music and artists and to facilitate and
encourage cultural cooperation between the United Kingdom and Ukraine.
While the first Festival’s theme could be described as “Ukraine – Great Britain” (the climax of the Festival was a staged performance, the first time in Ukraine, of Britten’s War Requiem), the leitmotif of the Second edition of the Kyiv Festival was "Ukraine - Europe". It aimed to promote Ukraine's deeper integration into European cultural life whilst retaining the Festival's strong ties with Great Britain and the Benjamin Britten International Violin Competition. Kyiv Festival 2005 was held over two weeks in the most prestigious concert halls of Kyiv and Lviv featuring outstanding Ukrainian and foreign artists performing diverse, often unusual repertoire. The second Festival also incorporated a Week of Cooperation, unique of its kind, between two distinguished music academies: the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) and the National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv) - an artistic and educational project that included an opera performance (Turn of the Screw by Britten), concerts and masterclasses. The Third Kyiv Festival took place 20 - 27 April 2006 in Kyiv at the National Philharmonic Hall and the National Music Academy and it continued the trends established by the earlier festivals. Once again works by Ukrainian and other composers were performed by a number of distinguished international artists. In addition, the Festival paid special tribute to W. A. Mozart whose 250th anniversary is celebrated this year worldwide. Mozart’s works was strongly featured as well as music by 20th and 21st century composers who were particularly inspired by Mozart’s genius such as Alban Berg, Benjamin Britten and Valentine Sylvestrov. Most importantly, the Kyiv Festival consistently places Ukrainian music within a pan-European framework, since the development of a strong profile for Ukraine in the family of leading world nations is only possible through an active promotion of unique Ukrainian culture in an international context. For detailed information about our previous festivals please choose a link below:
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