The EMCY congratulates the competition for its longstanding existence and therefore gives an insight in the competition’s history down to the present day:

The International Russian Rotary Children Music Competition came into being in 2001 by the Rotary Club Moscow International (RCMI).  Its founders are Josef Marous and Tiberius Braun, co-chairman and chairman of the organizing committee as well as past-presidents of the RCMI in the years from 2002-2004. The competition became main project of the club and reached nowadays a full recognition in the Russian music world and abroad.

The competition’s organisers see the main tasks of the competition in supporting young musicians through scholarships, developing their talent and giving them possibilities to perform in different concerts in Russia and abroad. In recent years concerts abroad have been held in Cannes (France), Vienna (Austria), Paderborn, Siegen, Iserlohn, Düsseldorf and Remscheid (Germany), Ravenna and Bari (Italy) amongst others.

Another important aspect of the competition is the opportunity to unite Rotarians and to develop Rotarian friendship between different Rotary Clubs in Russia and abroad. The last two editions of the competition were supported for the first time actively by other Rotary Clubs from Moscow - the RCHumboldt-Moscow, RCRossica Moscow and the RCMoscow.

The International Russian Rotary Children Music Competition has experienced a lot of changes and improvements during the last 10 years of its existence. To name but a few it was enriched through more categories like wind instruments, cello (2^nd competition, 2003) and saxophone (8^th competition, 2010), became more international through its membership of EMCY in 2006 and one year later enabling musicians from all over the world to participate in the competition and through the jury itself becoming international. Furthermore the competition has become much better in quality offering money prizes to all participants in the semifinal and final in a total value of 9.500$ and offering the participants to perform with orchestra (6^th competition, 2008).