About 100 young people from secondary music schools and academies from Serbia and Republic of Srpska participated in competition, and the winners are Trio Assahra from Belgrade Music Academy, Pavle Krstic student of Secundary Music school "Isidor Bajić" from Novi Sad and Vanja Ćirković from the Music Academy of Eastern Sarajevo. Winners of the festival: Trio Assahra, Pavle Krstic and Vanja Cirkovic The founder of the Bolshoi Festival, director Emir Kusturica, said at the opening ceremony that with the appearance of Denis Matsuev the festival surpassed even the world's best festivals. Matsuev performed compositions of Pyotr Tchaikovsky, Sergei Rachmaninoff, Igor Stravinsky, the Hungarian Rhapsody by Franz List and, as a special surprise, some jazz compositions. Denis Matsuev “I have long dreamed of seeing a piano and a philharmonic performing compositions by great Russian authors at the Mećavnik hill, where there used to be only a pole and a haystack and now there is an entire wooden town. Now one of my dreams is coming true and the pole and the haystack are becoming history. Cooperation with Gazprom Neft is testimony to a common cultural effort by the two nations that have a fraternal relationship,” Mr Kusturica pointed out. NIS Chief Executive Officer and Gazprom Neft Deputy CEO for Foreign Assets Kirill Kravchenko said that Serbia and Russia have a centuries-long collaboration at various levels, especially in culture. Emir Kusturica and Kirill Kravchenko “It is little known that famous Pushkin spoke Serbian and that he rendered Serbian folk songs into Russian, while Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, one of the greatest composers in history, used Serbian songs to compose the Serbo-Russian March. We constantly support young talents, which is the main purpose of this festival as well. I hope that we will see such talents as Matsuev, Pushkin and Tchaikovsky at Mećavnik this year," he pointed out. The Czech National Orchestra appeared at the Bolshoi Festival and performed the Time of the Gypsies opera accompanied by the band No Smoking Orchestra.
