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The Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee for Russia’s first ever Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games today unveiled its Cultural Olympiad program with a creative performance, confirming the participation of the nation’s leading figures from the worlds of art and culture.

According to International Olympic Committee (IOC) requirements, the Cultural Olympiad begins four years prior to the start of the Winter Games. Its goal is to showcase the Host City through culture and art.

Drawing from experiences of other Cultural Olympiads, as well as implementing its own innovative approach, Sochi 2014 has prepared a unique program that will last for more than four years.

The center of the Sochi 2014 Cultural Olympiad will be the Greater Sochi area. Events will take place in the main concert halls: the Winter Theater, the Organ and Chamber Music Hall, the "Festivalniy" concert hall and the Sochi Art Museum.

The Sochi 2014 Cultural Olympiad will include:

• More than 4 years of bright cultural events
• More than 1,000 events
• More than 10,000 performers from all over Russia and abroad
• More than 100,000 participants
• More than 1,000,000 spectators expected
• More than 1,000,000,000 TV viewers projected

Besides the Sochi 2014 Organizing Committee, the organizers of the Cultural Olympiad are the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, the Administration of the Krasnodar Region and the Sochi City Administration.

Every year will be devoted to a specific theme – 2010 will be the Year of Cinema, 2011 will represent the Year of Theater, 2012 will be the Year of Music and 2013 will be the Year of Museums.

The period from January-March 2014 will showcase the best projects from 2010-2013. The presentation of the Sochi 2014 Cultural Olympiad program included participation of cultural figures, movie stars and show business personalities.

The Year of Cinema was presented at the show by famous Russian director Alexey Uchitel and three-time Olympic figure skating champion Irina Rodnina. Theater artist Pavel Kaplevich and international opera diva Maria Guleghina talked about the Year of Theater.

General Secretary of the Russian Paralympic Committee and Paralympic champion Mikhail Terentiev and Sochi 2014 Ambassador, popular singer Diana Gurtskaya, presented projects aimed towards people with disabilities.

The Year of Music was presented by musician and composer Igor Butman and world-famous conductor and Sochi 2014 Ambassador, Yuri Bashmet. The Year of Museums was introduced by outstanding artist and sculptor Zurab Tseretelli.

Among thematic projects of the Cultural Olympiad are "Aqua-Jazz", a festival featuring Valery Gergiev and Anna Netrebko, a series of concerts by Oleg Mitiaev called "Summer is a Little Life", the Sochi carnival "Sochny Fest", an eco-art festival called "Green Art", which was presented by Nadezhda Babkina and a youth festival called "Not Gonna Get Us", presented by Sochi 2014 Ambassador popular Russian singer, Dima Bilan and famous rapper, Roman Zhigan. The Cultural Olympiad program presentation also included the participation of well-known DJ and musician Gleb Solovyev (Subwave).

Apart from the themed projects, the program also includes special projects, exclusively created for the Sochi 2014 Cultural Olympiad, as well as a series of events including concerts, plays and exhibitions. Valery Gergiev, Anna Netrebko, Yuri Bashmet, Yuri Grigorovich, Dima Bilan, Nikolai Tsiskaridze, Uliana Lopatkina, Yevgeniy Mironov, Igor Butman, Oleg Mitiaev and Nadezhda Babkina are among some the participants.

Sochi 2014 President and CEO, Dmitry Chernyshenko, said:

"The Olympic and Paralympic Games are not just global sporting events that captures the attention of the world a few moments in advance, the Games begin long before the lighting of the flame in the main stadium.

"The Cultural Olympiad creates an atmosphere of anticipation for the Games. This unprecedented event also calls for maintaining a cultural dialog between Russia and the global community, revealing the amazing diversity of modern Russian culture to the rest of the world.

"The participants of the Sochi 2014 Cultural Olympiad represent classical, as well as avant-garde art; musicians who gather packed stadiums; and chamber performers who are distinguished representatives of all musical styles and genres."

The program for the "Year of Cinema" (2010)

• "Movies Without Barriers" – a film festival devoted to people with disabilities
• "Movies in Your Backyard" – classical world cinema films will be shown on projectors that will be set up around different parts of Sochi. Additionally, workshops will be conducted for schoolchildren and students
• Sport Movie Festiva
• Special film rubric "Sport Movie Superpowers on a Visit to Sochi"

The program for the "Year of Theater" (2011)

• The best laureate-plays of the "Golden Mask" festival, theatrical collections exhibitions
• Mariynskiy Theater Tour, Puppet Theater Festival
• "ProTheater" Festival. The objective of the festival is to encourage support for theatrical creativity of people with disabilities, as well as assisting in creation and development of "special" theaters in Russia
• "Territory – Sochi" Festival – a festival of modern and fashionable Russian and foreign theatrical troupes. The director will be Yevgeniy Mironov

The program for the "Year of Music" (2012)

• A festival featuring Anna Netrebko and Valery Gergiev
• The Russian National Philharmonic Seasons in Sochi
• Yuri Bashmet’s "The Winter Musical Festival"
• Oleg Mitiaev’s Art song "Summer is a Little Life" festival
• Igor Butman’s "Aqua-Jazz" festival
• Nadezhda Babkina’s "Songs of Russia" festival

The program for the "Year of Museums" (2013)

• Exhibitions from the State Hermitage and Tretyakov State Gallery collections, as well as from the funds of the All-Russian Decorative-Applied and Folk Arts Museum and private collections
• International exhibit-show "Expo-Museum"
• International En Plein Air of Modern Visual Art
• Russian Modern Art exhibitions
• Russian Classical Photography exhibitions
• The Kuban Modern Art exhibition