From 25 April to 16 May the XXIII Moscow Easter Festival will take place. This season marks the first time in the festival’s history that it will include artists from the Bolshoi Theatre – a joint symphonic programme presented by the combined symphony orchestras of the Mariinsky and Bolshoi theatres. For the first time the Primorsky Stage of the Mariinsky Theatre will also join the event on a large scale, presenting the Far Eastern Easter Festival from 9 to 14 May in Sakhalin Region, Primorsky and Khabarovsk krais (regions). The festival will maintain its traditional extensive geography and rich programmes – Symphonic, Choral and Carillon. The main principles of the festival remain unchanged: charitable, educational and enlightening activities
On 7 May a new series of guest performances by the Bolshoi Theatre of Russia will open at the Mariinsky Theatre. This time, the Moscow company will present two ballets in St Petersburg – Spartacus by Khachaturian, staged by Yuri Grigorovich, and Jewels set to music by Fauré, Stravinsky, and Tchaikovsky, staged by George Balanchine. The previous exchange ballet tours between the theaters took place more than twenty years ago, in March 2003
From 12 to 14 April the Mariinsky Theatre Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Valery Gergiev, will give three performances at Moscow's Zaryadye Concert Hall. The Moscow audience will enjoy appearances by opera stars Ildar Abdrazakov, Tatyana Serzhan, Irina Churilova, Sergey Skorokhodov, and a concert featuring the celebrated pianist Denis Matsuev
The international festival Flute Virtuosos & Northern Lyre will be held for the third time at the Mariinsky Theatre from April 3 to 8, in the Concert Hall and the chamber halls of Prokofiev and Rachmaninov. The audience will be treated to seven concerts featuring musicians from Russia, China, and Turkey. Master classes for students and postgraduates of music educational institutions in Russia will be conducted by leading flutists and harpists from Istanbul, Beijing, Moscow, and St Petersburg