Atis Bankas knows how to put the "international" into the Niagara International Chamber Music Festival.

The artistic director of the 10-year-old summer festival in picturesque Niagara-on-the-Lake has always made it a point of showcasing talent from various countries.

And this summer's edition, which began July 21, is no exception. There have been or will be performances by a host of well-known Canadians such as Tony-award winner Brent Carver, actor Christopher Newton, jazzers such as vibraphonist Peter Appleyard, the John Sherwood Trio, Brandi Disterheft's Trio and Quartet, bassist Dave Young, Quartetto Gelato, and pianists Anton Kuerti and Robert Silverman. Plus, there'll be musicians from across the border, notably the Philharmonic Quartet from the Buffalo Philharmonic, as well as the CanAmerata Quartet, made up of two Canadian musicians including Bankas, a first violinist with the Toronto Symphony, as well as two Buffalo-area musicians.

This summer however, no fewer than 25 of the artists on the NICMF's current roster were trained in the former Soviet Union.

"It probably comes naturally," said Bankas of his Russian choices. Bankas himself is a Lithuanian emigre who received higher training in the Soviet Union.

Among the artists Bankas admires is Ukrainian born Mykola Suk, 62, a powerhouse pianist who played in Hamilton years ago at Alan Walker's Great Romantics Festival, and returns to Niagara-on-the-Lake after a long absence.

Suk studied in Kiev, and did his graduate and post-graduate degrees in Moscow. He also taught in both cities, before coming to the U.S. around 1990 on a working visa. Now an American citizen, he currently teaches at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

"The Russian school pays a lot of attention, and maybe main attention, to sound, singing sound," explained Suk, who studied with Lev Vlasenko, who in turn was a student of Yakov Flier. "It's very much a Romantic link of piano playing," said Suk of his pianistic pedigree. "I always pay much attention to sound."

Suk will perform tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. in the Pumphouse Visual Art Centre, 247 Ricardo St. The all-Beethoven bill includes Sonata No. 18, and the Fourth Piano Concerto arranged for piano and string quartet. Interestingly, Suk doesn't decry the lack of woodwind, brass, and percussion sound in this arrangement, but rather embraces it.

"It depends of your attitude," said Suk. "You can try to compare and decide what is better, what it was, or you can take it as a new reality. This concerto (is) quite intimate compared to some others."

Tickets are $30.

Like the other Russians at the NICMF, the members of the St. Petersburg Quartet are emigres. Formed in 1985 as the Leningrad Quartet, they studied with members of the renowned Taneyev Quartet. Typical of so many other successful Soviet artists, they climbed the ladder through victories in music competitions first at home, then abroad.

With the fall of the Soviet Union, travel restrictions for them, and so many other Russians, were lifted.

They secured an American agent, and from 1998 until 2003 were quartet-in-residence at Oberlin Conservatory. These days, they make their living by playing 60 to 70 concerts per year. On Friday, Aug. 8 at 7:30 p.m., the SPQ performs at St. Mark's Church, 41 Byron St. Later that month, they'll present a series of concerts in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw Recital Hall.

And how often do they now perform in their motherland?

"Almost not," said founding first violinist, Alla Aronovskaya. "In Russia we have an expression: There is no prophet in your own country (A prophet has no honour in his own land). We left the country only because it was impossible to live on the salary. We don't want to blow the connection, but somehow the (state) concert organization (Goskontsert, highly inefficient and corrupt) forgot about us."

In St. Mark's, the SPQ will play a youthful quartet by Schubert, Dvorak's American, and Tchaikovsky's Second.

The latter is a work that Aronovskaya reckons the SPQ has played more than a hundred times. They've recorded all three of Tchaikovsky's quartets, and later this year, the Toronto-based label Marquis Classics is scheduled to release the SPQ's complete cycle of Tchaikovsky chamber music on CD.

Tickets for the SPQ are $35. Call 1-800-511-SHAW (7429). For all the info on the festival, log onto www.niagaramusicfest.com.

Read Leonard Turnevicius's reports from European classical music festivals at www.jamilton.ca.