Britten Festival Kyiv 2004, the inaugural edition of the Kyiv Festival, was held under the auspices of the Benjamin Britten International Violin Competition London . The Britten Competition is owned and operated by Goodenough College, a London academic institution whose patron is HM The Queen. The aims of the first Kyiv Festival were not only to promote the Britten Competition in Ukraine and provide the platform on which one of the future editions of the Competition could be brought to Kyiv, but also to promote British music as a whole and the works of Benjamin Britten in particular, to support Ukrainian music and artists and to facilitate and encourage cultural cooperation between the United Kingdom and Ukraine.

While the first Festival’s theme could be described as “Ukraine – Great Britain” (the climax of the Festival was a staged performance, the first time in Ukraine, of Britten’s War Requiem), the leitmotif of the Second edition of the Kyiv Festival was "Ukraine - Europe". It aimed to promote Ukraine's deeper integration into European political and cultural life whilst retaining the Festival's strong ties with Great Britain and the Benjamin Britten International Violin Competition. Kyiv Festival 2005 was held over two weeks in the most prestigious concert halls of Kyiv and Lviv featuring outstanding Ukrainian and foreign artists performing diverse, often unusual repertoire.

The second Festival also incorporated a Week of Cooperation, unique of its kind, between two distinguished music academies: the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (London) and the National Music Academy of Ukraine (Kyiv) - an artistic and educational project that included an opera performance (Turn of the Screw by Britten), concerts and masterclasses.

The Third Kyiv Festival will take place 20 - 27 April in Kyiv at the National Philharmonic Hall and the National Music Academy and will continue the trends established by the earlier festivals. Once again works by Ukrainian and other composers will be performed by a number of distinguished international artists. In addition, the Festival will pay special tribute to W. A. Mozart whose 250th anniversary is celebrated this year worldwide. Mozart’s works will be strongly featured as well as music by 20th and 21st century composers who were particularly inspired by Mozart’s genius such as Alban Berg, Benjamin Britten and Valentine Sylvestrov. Most importantly, the Festival will consistently place Ukrainian music within a pan-European framework, since the development of a strong profile for Ukraine in the family of leading world nations is only possible through an active promotion of unique Ukrainian culture in an international context.

The Festival Director is Alla Andreicheva. The artistic vision and programming is shared between Bogodar Kotorovych, Yevhen Stankovych, Dmytro Tkachenko and Vasyl Vovkun. Major General Tim Toyne Sewell, chairman of the Britten Competition, is the Festival Chairman for the third year running. The Festival takes place in association with the National Music Academy, National Philharmonic Society, National Symphony Orchestra, Kyiv Philharmonic Orchestra, National Chamber Ensemble “Kyiv Camerata”, State Chamber Ensemble “Kyiv Soloists” and others.

Major sponsors are Gilles Hondius Foundation (The Netherlands) and ISA Corporation (Ukraine); the official carrier is Ukraine International Airlines. The Closing Concert, commemorating 20 years from the Chornobyl tragedy and 75 years from composer Michael Tariverdiev birth, is a joint project with the Embassy of Russian Federation in Ukraine, the Fund Promoting Development of Arts (Ukraine) and the Michael Tariverdiev Foundation.

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