Press Release No.2002-101

RUSSIAN PIANIST SERGEI MARKAROV
TO BE NAMED UNESCO ARTIST FOR PEACE

Paris, December 10 - UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura will appoint the distinguished Russian pianist Sergei Markarov a UNESCO Artist for Peace on December 12 in recognition of his "support for UNESCO programmes and activities promoting peace and tolerance and for his contribution to dialogue between cultures through classical music."

The nomination ceremony will take place at 7 p.m. at UNESCO Headquarters, after which the pianist will give a gala concert (Room I, 8 p.m.), accompanied by the French Garde républicaine Symphony Orchestra. The concert, under the aegis of the Fondation Napoleon, is part of the French Musé de l'Armée 2002-03 musical season and of the current UN Year for Cultural Heritage. Beethoven's 3rd Symphony (the Eroica) and Concerto No. 5 for piano and orchestra (the Emperor) will be played.

Mr Markarov was born in Baku in 1953 and studied in St Petersburg and Moscow. He won the first prize for piano, teaching, chamber music and accompaniment at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory in St Petersburg and the 1982 Alessandro Casagrande International Piano Competition in Italy. Since 1993, he has been performing in Europe's most prestigious concert halls and at many festivals. He is also a member of several international competition juries and teaches at the Paris Ecole Normale de musique and Conservatoire municipal Jacques Ibert de Paris.

UNESCO began naming Artists for Peace in 1995, International Year for Tolerance, to "sensitize public opinion about issues relating to peace, justice, children in need, the struggle against illiteracy, the environment and tolerance." Among them are Chinese actress Gong Li, Japanese violinist Eijin Nimura, Mozambican painter Malangatana and Brazilian singer Gilberto Gil.

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Journalists wishing to cover this event, should contact
UNESCO Press Service, tel: +33 (0)1 4568-1748