EURO opening ceremony to set magical tone

UEFA has released details of the UEFA EURO 2012 opening ceremony at the National Stadium in Warsaw on 8 June.

The performance will start 20 minutes before kick-off of the tournament's opening match between Poland and Greece. It will offer a fitting curtain-raiser to three weeks of a celebration of national team football in Poland and Ukraine.

The concept for the UEFA EURO 2012 opening ceremony has been developed by Marco Balich, Olympic Producer and president of events and ceremonies company Filmmaster Events. Balich created the opening and closing ceremonies of the Turin Olympics in 2006 and is also known in Ukraine, having produced the opening ceremony of the Donbass Arena in Donetsk in 2009.

The 12-minute show will combine heritage and innovation, to bring sport and culture together and mark the start of a historical event, the first UEFA European Football Championship to be staged in central and eastern Europe. It will also promote the participating nations together with key EURO values: unity, rivalry and passion.

Renowned Hungarian classical pianist Adam Gyorgy, who recently celebrated his 30th birthday with a sold out concert at New York City's Carnegie Hall, will perform a Chopin Étude in a minor (Op.25 Nr.11) as part of the ceremony, to bring the pure classical tradition of Chopin into a sport environment. Gyorgy is no stranger to football, being a major fan himself, and playing as part of his daily routine. He was previously involved with the Hungarian national futsal set-up.

Italian DJ and producer DJ Karmatronic - who has done successful remixes for some of the world’s top artists - will join Adam Gyorgy at the opening ceremony. As well as performing his own music from a DJ booth, DJ Karmatronic will perform a unpublished track that he wrote together with Adam Gyorgy, which is entitled “The Game of the World”.

The opening ceremony will include mass choreographies involving more than 800 volunteer performers, coming from as many as 63 countries around the world. More than 150 million live viewers are expected to watch the opening match and its ceremony.

The national anthems of Poland and Greece will be sang by the Academic Choir of University of Warsaw. The 75 choir members will be conducted by the choir master Irina Bogdanovich.