The opening ceremony of UEFA EURO 2012 will be held 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 and offer an unforgettable 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, creative director and executive producer of Italian events and ceremonies company Filmmaster Events. Marco Balich has amongst other 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 east Europe. It will also promote the participating nations together with key UEFA 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. Adam Gyorgy is no stranger to football, being a major fan himself, and practising football as his daily routine. He was previously a member of the Hungarian national futsal team.

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.