Apogee Launches Performing Arts Programs Throughout Ukraine In Partnership With National, Regional and Local Governments

The Apogee Foundation, an international nonprofit dedicated to promoting excellence in the performing arts, is rolling out programs for world class performing artists across Ukraine.

______________________

"Everyone at Apogee is thrilled to participate in the magnificent cultural life of this nation, its uniquely rich history and perpetually promising future."
______________________

New York, October 25, 2005 (eMediaWire, PRWeb, PressBox) – The Apogee Foundation has formed strategic partnerships with local, regional and national governments to introduce its prestigious international award and grant programs for world class performing artists throughout Ukraine.

In the course of meetings with government leaders and the heads of the leading training institutions across the country, agreements have been reached to begin immediate implementation of Apogee’s full range of programs and for long term collaboration to revitalize Ukraine's historic legacy as a world leader in the performing arts.

Youri Kuznetsov, Minister of Culture for the Odessa Province of Ukraine, and Apogee President Kenneth Schneider celebrating with professors at the Odessa Conservatory following a recital by a student from the Cherkassy Region of Ukraine.

The first fruit of these collaborations will be implementation of the Foundation’s Excellence Awards program, designed to recognize and assist performing arts students and professionals demonstrating extraordinary ability. A full slate of Excellence Awards designated for elite Ukrainian students and professionals will be introduced beginning in Odessa during the first quarter of 2006, with a search committee chaired jointly by the Odessa Province's Minister of Culture, Professor Youri Kuznetsov, and Apogee's President Kenneth Schneider. The Odessa Region was selected for inauguration of this program due to its legendary traditions of producing world class performing artists, many of them regarded as among the greatest in human history.

Detailed information regarding Apogee’s Excellence Awards program can be found on the Foundation’s website: http://www.apogeefoundation.org/awards/
excellence.php

The Mayor of Talnoye (capital city of the Cherkassy Region of Central Ukraine), Alexander F. Bilenko, with Apogee President Kenneth Schneider: 30 September 2005.

Following roll out of its Excellence Awards program in Southern Ukraine, the Foundation will implement its Regional Awards program beginning in the Cherkassy Province during the second quarter of 2006. The Foundation’s Regional Awards program is designed to promote excellence in the performing arts within targeted geopolitical regions where resources enabling world class talents to achieve their fullest potential are more scarce. This province in the center of Ukraine was selected for inauguration of this program in honor of Mischa Elman who was born in Talnoye, in the heart of this province, and from this remote area emerged to become one of the most revered performing artists of the past century.

Apogee's Mischa Elman Award will be administered in partnership with local administrations and presented each spring to the Cherkassy Province’s most promising young musicians.

Excellence and Regional Awards provide laureates with funding, recognition, training and performance opportunities and holistic support services enabling them to achieve their fullest potential at each stage of their careers.

The Leader of the Orange Revolution and President of Ukraine, Victor Yushchenko, in Kiev: the nation's capital city in Northern Ukraine.

The implementation of additional Apogee programs in these and other regions of Ukraine are now being pursued with Ukraine's Presidential Administration in Kiev, in furtherance of which the participation of the President and First Lady was warmly invited and welcomed during a meeting on October 17th in London.

Apogee President Kenneth Schneider remarked: “Everyone at Apogee is thrilled to participate in the magnificent cultural life of this nation, its uniquely rich history and perpetually promising future. The ideals which our movement seeks to foster: those of freeing and empowering the potential of human beings to achieve excellence on the world stage, shares its orange color with the Ukrainian people's own movement of freedom and empowerment, and we are extremely optimistic about the opportunity we now have to help build an ever greater destiny for this goliath of nations straddling the Eastern and Western worlds.”

To view this news release with full photographic content and to download printer friendly and PDF formats, as well as to obtain translations into other languages, please refer to the Foundation's website: http://www.ApogeeFoundation.org/awareness/2005-2006/ukraine_programs.php

About The Apogee Foundation ®

The Apogee Foundation began activities in Russia in 1997 and was incorporated in the United States in 2004 as a New York based not-for-profit corporation. Apogee is dedicated to the development of human excellence in the performing arts. It supports cultural institutions and individual artists, providing administrative, promotional, and financial support to help talented individuals achieve their full potential, and enabling this potential to be showcased to the world.

Achieving the Potential of Human Excellence in the Performing Arts

Contact

Kenneth Schneider, Apogee President
1001 Avenue of the Americas, 12th Floor
New York, NY 10018-5460 (USA)
+1.646.233.4350 or +1.888.APOGEE.8
Fax: +1.646.292.5101
www.ApogeeFoundation.org