Famous Latvian violinist and conductor Gidon Kremer starts to gather musicians for holding a big concert in support of Russian opposition activists who suffered from political repressions in the recent years. This information came on July 22 from a musical critic Norman Lebrecht's personal blog.

      Some musicians, such as pianists Martha Argerich and Khatia Buniatishvili, conductor Daniel Barenboim and violinist Altstaedt Nicolas, are already in the list of participants in the concert.

      As a part of the program, it is planned to perform a Georgian composer Giya Kancheli's "Sorrow Angel" dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

      It is not the first time for Gidon Kremer to make a stand against Putin's regime and political repressions. In July 2011, he took part in a concert dedicated to Mikhail Khodorkovsky and Platon Lebedev, as well as to other people who "died because of unlawful actions" - Sergei Magnitsky, Anna Politkovskaya and Yury Shchekoschihin.

      At the same time, as Norman Lebrecht says, Kremer doesn't blame those musicians who support the current Russian president, such as Anna Netrebko or Valery Gergiev. "My teacher, David Oistrakh, was a representative of the Soviet regime but he still was a great musician", Kremer said. "I can only imagine what he has lived through. Who know, hom many years of his life it costed him."

      Gidon Kremer was born in Riga in 1947. From 1965 he studied with David Oistrakh at the Moscow Conservatory. In 1967, he won third prize at the Queen Elisabeth Music Competition in Brussels and many other prestigious prizes later. In 1980 Kremer left the USSR and settled in Austria where he founded the Kremerata Baltica chamber orchestra, composed of young players from the Baltic region. Kremer is a laureate of many awards, including International Tchaikovsky Competition, Paganini Competition, Rolf Schock Prize and others.