Started in 2001 by the renowned conductor and director of St. Petersburg's Mariinsky Theatre, Valery Gergiev, the Moscow Easter Festival has now grown into a nationwide classical music event taking place in numerous cities across Russia and the CIS. The musical selection of the festival generally has religious themes, although the styles of music are wide-ranging and include bell-ringing and choral music as well as orchestral symphonies and opera premieres and takes place in numerous concert halls, monasteries, chapels and cathedrals. In Moscow there will be more than 80 different concerts taking place under the Easter Festival banner in venues as diverse as St. Basil's Cathedral, the Moscow conservatory and Ivan's bell tower in the Kremlin.