The Neva Foundation is happy to provide support to the 21st edition of the Verbier Festival which takes place this year from July 18 to August 3. Since 2011, this fruitful cooperation concerns primarily the education programmes for young talents, the Verbier Festival Academy and the Verbier Festival Music Camp. The Neva Foundation Prize is awarded to the most talented musician at the end of the Festival.

During three weeks, the Verbier Festival Academy welcomes an elite group of young artists who have an opportunity to exchange creative ideas, to perform together and to participate in masterclasses and workshops with Yuri Bashmet and Zakhar Bron. This year, the selected artists are Dinara Klinton (piano, Ukraine), Elin Kolev (violin, Russia), Mariya Krasnyuk (violin, Ukraine), Alena Lugovkina (flute, Russia), Viktorija Miskunaite (soprano, Lithuania), Nadezda Pisareva (piano, Russia), Estelle Revaz (cello, Switzerland), Sayaka Selina (cello, Switzerland) and the 14-year old violinist in residence Daniel Lozakovitj (Sweden).

In 2014, The Verbier Festival Music Camp takes place in a timeframe of four weeks (instead of three weeks). Around sixty young artists aged from 15 to 17 take part in a large number of workshops from July 7 to August 4 and have to meet the challenge of learning and performing different pieces of music.

Among them, 17 students have the support of the Neva Foundation, and they will meet some VIPs, such as Yuri Temirkanov who will give them precious pieces of advice.

The Neva Prize has been given this year to two laureates:

Gediminas Gelgotas is a Lithuanian, born in 1986, who has been the Verbier Festival Composer-in-Residence this summer. Gediminas has written a piece “Never Ignore the Cosmic Ocean" in collaboration with the members of the Verbier Festival Academy and the Verbier Festival Orchestra. The work is experimental in that the musicians have to rap and dance and play, all at the same time, quite an achievement.

Alena Lugovkina is Russian, living in London, she is the flute player. Alena is a bundle of extremely positive energy whose goal is to establish programmes for young people in Russia aside from her concert career. She is an alumni of the Verbier Festival Orchestra who has been participating this summer in the Academy’s new “Reaching Out” programme.



Partner:Verbier Festival