Yuri Bashmet, the world-renowned Russian musician, will be making a tour of the Seychelles in June 2010 to introduce the islands to his special repertoire of fine classical music. Mr. Bashmet, the most famous conductor and violist in Russia, was born in 1953 and has become very well-known throughout the world.

He started his conducting activity in 1985 and has since gained a worldwide reputation for being a bold contemporary artist not afraid of taking risks.

In 1992, Mr. Bashmet began working with a new group, Moscow Soloists, which he directs himself and which is composed of musicians nominated by professors at the Moscow Conservatoire as the cream of the new generation of string players. The Moscow Soloists have already been rapturously received in Moscow, Athens, Amsterdam, Paris, and at the BBC Promenade Concerts in London.

In a number of major concert halls, including La Scala in Milan and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Mr. Bashmet has been the first violist ever to give a solo recital. He has appeared on many occasions with Sviatoslav Richter and has performed chamber music with many other leading artists, including Natalia Gutman, the Borodin Quartet, Gidon Kremer, Viktoria Mullova, Mstislav Rostropovich, and Maxim Vengerov.

He has appeared with nearly all the world’s leading orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Montreal Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, and London’s Philharmonia Orchestra. The London Symphony Orchestra presented a four-concert Yuri Bashmet festival in 1993 at the Barbican. Bashmet was “International Artist in Residence” for the 1998 Bath International Festival.

A “Bashmet Tour of Seychelles” is set to attract a considerable number of his fans and also add a new cultural dimension to the islands’ tourism industry. The provisional dates for the tour are June 14-21.

The Seychelles Department of Culture in the Ministry of Community Development, Youth, Sports, and Culture has said that they would like Mr. Yuri Abramovic Bashmet and his orchestra to perform in Seychelles to quench the thirst of Seychellois classical music lovers and give them the opportunity to experience the conducting power of this great artist.