Petrushka (Russian: Петрушка) is a stock character of Russian folk puppetry (rayok) known at least since 17th century. Petrushkas were used as marionettes, as well as hand puppets. Traditionally he was a kind of a jester distinguished by red dress, red kolpak, and often a long nose.

Although the Russian word "petrushka" has a homonym meaning "parsley," in this context the word is actually a hypocoristic for "Pyotr" (Пётр), which is Peter in Russian. However, the character has little or nothing in common with such stock characters as Petruccio or Pierrot. Petrushka is rather a Russian Punch or Pulcinella in character.

It was the Empress Anna Ioannovna’s court jester Pietro-Mira Pedrillo from Italy, who served as a prototype for Petrushka.

Petrushka’s voice was created with the help of a special whistle, and the dialogue was based on a momentary change of the pishchik and the “live” voice of other characters. There were a number of basic plots: the medical treatment of Petrushka, his learning of soldier’s service, the scene with his bride, the buying of a horse and testing it.

Nina Ananiashvili (also: Nino Ananiashvili, Georgian: ნინო ანანიაშვილი) (born March 28, 1963) is a Georgian ballerina and artistic director of the State Ballet of Georgia.

She was born in Tbilisi, Georgian SSR, Soviet Union, to Gedevan Ananiashvili and Leah Gogolashvili in 1963 and has two brothers. She began her training in Georgia in 1969 when she entered the Georgia State Choreographic Institute (prior to that, she was practicing figure skating and had become a Georgian State champion in the junior division). In 1976 she entered the Moscow Choreographic Institute where her main teacher was Natalia Zolotova. In 1980, she made her stage debut in a school production of Coppelia. She graduated and entered the Bolshoi Ballet in 1981. In 1983 she was promoted to the rank of soloist and performed in her native Tbilisi as a professional for the first time. Eventually she rose to become a prima ballerina. She, along with Andris Liepa, was the first Soviet dancer to appear as a guest performer with the New York City Ballet in 1988 (she had danced in "Raymonda Variations", "Apollo" and "Symphony in C" there). She became a principal dancer for the American Ballet Theatre in 1993, and in 1999 she joined the Houston Ballet with that same rank.

Andris Liepa (Russian: Андрис Лиепа) (Moscow, USSR, 6 January 1962) is a world ballet star, director and producer. Born in 1962 to a prominent Russian-Latvian artistic clan, he was already an established soloist at the Bolshoi under the direction of legendary Soviet choreographer Yuri Grigorovich in the 1980’s. In the heady days of perestroika in 1988, he became the first Soviet dancer to work officially in a foreign ballet company. In the United States, he danced for the New York City Ballet alongside Nina Ananiashvili before working with Mikhail Baryshnikov, Kenneth MacMillan and George Balanchine. In 1989, he returned to the Soviet Union to dance for the Kirov Ballet and star in performances in La Scala, l’Opera de Paris, Rome and Swedish operas. In 1993 he successfully revived in Russia The Firebird, Petrouchka and Scheherazade – three Michel Fokine masterpieces that until then had been performed exclusively in the West as part of Sergey Diaghilev’s Les Saisons Russes in the early 20th century. In 1997 together with his sister Ilze, also a ballet dancer, he founded the Maris Liepa Charity Fund in honor of their father, the legendary Soviet ballet star Maris Liepa.

Valery Abisalovich Gergiev PAR (Russian: Валерий Абисалович Гергиев, Ossetic: Гергиты Абисалы фырт Валери/Gergity Abisaly Fyrt Valeri; born 2 May 1953) is a Russian conductor and opera company director. He is general director and artistic director of the Mariinsky Theatre, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and artistic director of the White Nights Festival in St. Petersburg.

Gergiev, born in Moscow, is the son of Tamara Tatarkanovna and Abisal Zaurbekovich. He and his siblings were raised in Vladikavkaz in their native North Ossetia in the Caucasus. He began piano at secondary school, before going on to study at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Leningrad from 1972 to 1977. His principal conducting teacher was Prof. Ilya Musin (Илья Мусин), one of the greatest conductor-makers in Russian musical history. His sister, Larissa Gergieva, is a pianist and director of the Mariinsky's singers' academy.

In 1978, he became assistant conductor at the Kirov Opera, now the Mariinsky Opera, under Yuri Temirkanov, where he made his debut conducting Sergei Prokofiev's War and Peace. He was chief conductor of the Armenian Philharmonic Orchestra from 1981 until 1985 – the year he made his debut in the United Kingdom, along with pianist Evgeny Kissin, and violinists Maxim Vengerov and Vadim Repin, at The Lichfield Festival.

Yuja Wang (Chinese: 王羽佳; pinyin: Wáng Yǔjiā; born February 10, 1987) is a Chinese classical pianist. She was born in Beijing, began studying piano there at age six, and went on to study at the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing.

Wang comes from a musical family. She entered Beijing's Central Conservatory of Music at age seven and studied there for three years. At age 11, Wang was accepted as the youngest student in the Morningside Music Bridge International Music Festival at Mount Royal University in Calgary, Canada. . After several summers of participating in the program, Wang moved to Canada at age 14 to continue her studies at the Mount Royal University Conservatory.

In 1998, Wang won 3rd Prize in the Ettlingen International Competition for Young Pianists, in Ettlingen, Germany. In 2001, she won Third Prize and Special Jury Prize (awarded to an especially superior finalist of less than 20 years in age, prize money of 500,000 Japanese Yen) in the Piano Section at the First Sendai International Music Competition in Sendai, Japan.