Stockholm music competition cancelled at Historical Museum over Russian ties

The Stockholm International Music Competition (SIMC) has been linked to Russian state institutions, prompting the Historical Museum in Stockholm to cancel its hosting of the event, following an investigation by Swedish broadcaster SVT.

Source: SVT Nyheter

Quote: "The competition was to be held at the Historical Museum and at the Nacka Music School. After the ties with Russia became apparent, the Historical Museum terminated the agreement with the competition, but the music school did not."

Details: The Swedish government issued a directive in 2022 that Swedish cultural institutions should not cooperate with Russian state entities.

Journalists found out that the entrance fee for the competition is paid to a Russian bank, and 14 jury members are employees of Russian state institutions that publicly support the war in Ukraine. The partner of the competition is Herzen University in St Petersburg in Russia, which also supports the war and sent humanitarian aid to Russian forces.

Director of the Historical Museum Åsa Marnell, in a conversation with journalists, replied that she did not know about the Russian connection.

The final concert of the competition has been held at the Historical Museum for several years, even after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

After an interview with SVT, the Historical Museum announced the termination of cooperation with the competition, "since this is contrary to the policy of the authorities."

Several more stages of the competition take place at the Nacka Music School. Operations manager Catharina Grunér Kronqvist also commented that she did not know about ties with Russia. However, this week’s competition will not be cancelled.

The organisers of the international music competition deny ties with Russia. In particular, the co-founder of the competition, Galina Ehrngren, noted that "there is no politics in competitions. It’s just music, nothing else." However, she added that they did not know that the Russian state university supported the war.

What is known about the international competition and relations with Russia

Journalists report that the competition was created in 2009 by two Russian musicians called the Savshinsky International Competition in St Petersburg.

A year later, one of the founders, Dmitry Mikhaylov, launched a similar competition in Stockholm with pianist Galina Ehrngren and violinist Anna Sundin. Since then, Swedish competitions have been held annually.

Mikhaylov is registered in St Petersburg as an individual entrepreneur. In the information about the competition, Russian participants who cannot use bank cards after the suspension of SWIFT are asked to pay the entrance fee directly to his account with the sanctioned bank Sberbank.

Journalists found the final concert of the Savshinsky competition in 2025, where Mikhaylov says from the stage that he "organises a similar competition in Stockholm". In the same video, Galina Ehrngren appears as a member of the jury. She was identified using the Amazon Rekognition facial recognition tool.

In addition, the official rules of the competition list jury members "from many countries", but there is not a single mention of Russia. Thanks to a search in open Russian sources, SVT was able to find 18 out of 47 jury members of Russian origin. Of these, 14 work in state cultural or educational institutions that directly support the invasion of Ukraine.

In particular, several jury members work at Herzen University in St Petersburg. This university signed the appeal of the Russian Rectors’ Union in support of Vladimir Putin and the army, and the university also sends humanitarian aid to Russian forces. Some also work at the Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatory. The university has its own patriotic programmes, including discounts and concerts for military personnel. Some members of the jury work at the Mariinsky Theatre, which since the spring of 2023 has been providing free tickets to theatre and concert performances to soldiers participating in Russia’s war and their families.

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