The idea of founding a music high school for particularly gifted children came from Franz Liszt, who was the director of the Weimar orchestra and theatre at the time, and as early as 1872 Karl Müllerhartung, a pupil of Liszt, became its first director. Two choirs and an orchestra of the music high school were an important part of Weimar’s musical life. From this time on, the glorious history of one of the world’s oldest institutions for the promotion of talented musicians began. In our time, its graduates study at renowned universities all over the world and without exception became winners of international competitions.

Juri Lebedev and the orchestra of the Music High School have been working together for many years. The orchestra represented the German musical traditions at the Brussels Parliament at the annual concerts of the Federal Government, was the main musical actor at the meeting of the St. Petersburg Dialogue, which was attended by top officials from Russia and Germany. At the international competition in Osnabrück, the orchestra of the music high school Belvedere under the direction of Juri Lebedev won first place and the Grand Prix for the performance of the music “Ramifications” by G. Ligeti.