Valery Gergiev, a Russian famous conductor and the Mariinsky theatre's creative director, has been appointed as Honorary President of the Edinburgh International Festival.

      Gergiev is only the third person to be invited to become honorary president, following violinist Yehudi Menuhin and conductor Charles Mackerras.

       "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", festival director Jonathan Mills said, "The festival very much looks forward to continuing and developing our relationship with Valery Gergiev into the future."

      Gergiev's collaboration with the festival began 20 years ago, in 1991, when he brought the Kirov Opera, now known as the Mariinsky Theatre, performing Mussorgsky's opera Khovanshchina at the Edinburgh Playhouse. Later he brought the Opera in 1995 (with Glinka's Ruslan and Lyudmila, Rimsky Korsakov's Sadko and The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh), in 1997 (with three programs of Prokofiev) and in 2008 (with Szymanowski's Krol Roger and Shchedrin's The Enchanted Wanderer as well as Rachmaninov's Aleko and Prokofiev's Semyon Kotko).

      "I can easily celebrate my 20 years with the Edinburgh International Festival, it is a wonderful place to visit," Gergiev said. 

Sources: Lenta.ru RIA Novosti BBC