President Vladimir Putin named Gergiev one of the International Ambassadors of the Sochi Olympics.

 

Valery Abisalovich Gergiev is a Russian conductor and opera company director. The art of Valery Gergiev is in great demand throughout the world. The maestro is a vivid representative of the St Petersburg conducting school and a former pupil of the legendary Professor Ilya Musin. The Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev has scaled new heights, assimilating not just opera and ballet scores, but also an expansive symphony music repertoire – every symphony by Beethoven, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Sibelius, Prokofiev and Shostakovich and works by Berlioz, Bruckner, Rimsky-Korsakov, Richard Strauss, Scriabin, Rachmaninoff, Stravinsky, Messiaen, Dutilleux, Ustvolskaya, Shchedrin, Kancheli and other composers.