Coming: Ivo Pogorelić, Bryn Terfel, Bomsori Kim and Many Others
The 54th Belgrade Music Festival (BEMUS) will be held from 1 to 15 November under the slogan ‘Seductive... like music!’, with an outstandingly rich programme in a wide range of styles, from Renaissance and Baroque music to contemporary works.
At the introductory press conference spoke: Nataša Mihailović Vacić, Secretary for Culture of the City of Belgrade; Damir Handanović, director of the Belgrade Festivals Centre (CEBEF); Bojan Suđić, artistic director of BEMUS; Dr Jelena Janković Beguš, editor of CEBEF's music programme and member of the BEMUS Board, as well as cellist Nemanja Stanković, who recently became a guest principal cellist with the Milan Symphony Orchestra and winner of the Aleksandar Pavlović Award of the Composers’ Association of Serbia.
The biggest stars of the world stage perform at concerts in the Kolarac Endowment: the famous Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel opens BEMUS on 1 November with the Virtuosi Festival Orchestra, conductor Bojan Suđić and guest Sofija Petrović, soprano. The famous pianist Ivo Pogorelić will perform on 7 November in Kolarac with a programme of Chopin's music from his latest CD, released for Deutsche Grammophon.
BEMUS will present two prominent young artists to the Belgrade audience for the first time: the Korean violinist Bomsori Kim, winner of numerous competitions, will be a soloist at the RTS Symphony Orchestra concert on 5 November, conducted by Manuel López-Gómez from Venezuela, while the Spanish pianist Martín García García, laureate of last year's Chopin Competition in Warsaw, will close this year's BEMUS on 15 November, with the Virtuosi Festival Orchestra.
The Vojvodina Symphony Orchestra will perform under the direction of its chief conductor Aleksandar Marković, with soloists, soprano Maida Hundeling from Germany and tenor Jan Vacík from the Czech Republic, on 12 November. The concerts in the Kolarac Endowment are rounded off by the ‘Madrigal – Marin Constantin’ National Chamber Choir from Romania, which presents itself on 2 November with an interesting music-visual programme.
The series of chamber music concerts in the Belgrade Philharmonic Hall will be opened by Nemanja Stanković, in collaboration with the prominent Italian pianist Marino Formenti, on 3 November. Two renowned local chamber ensembles, the Novi Sad Chamber Ensemble and the ‘Diffractions’ String Quartet, will hold concerts on 6 and 13 November in the same venue. The ‘VivaMuse’ ensemble performs on 8 November with a programme of baroque music, and this segment of the programme ends with a concert by the prominent Slovenian accordionist Marko Hatlak with the ‘FUNtango’ ensemble on 14 November.
Pre-sale tickets for the concerts in the Kolarac Endowment and the Belgrade Philharmonic Hall will be on sale at the ticket offices of these halls from 7 to 14 October, exclusively as part of a set for all concerts in the same hall, with a special 20 percent discount compared to the regular price of tickets. After the end of the promotional period, individual tickets sales will begin on 15 October at the ticket offices of these halls. Tickets will also be on sale online, through the ticket.rs website.
Two exceptional free concerts will also be held at BEMUS: the RTS Choir with conductor Bojan Suđić will perform on 9 November in Saborna crkva (The Cathedral Church of St Michael the Archangel), and the next day the famous violinist Gordan Nikolić will perform a programme of Bach’s suites and sonatas for solo violin in the Church of St Anthony of Padua.
BEMUS is realized under the auspices of the City of Belgrade – Secretariat for Culture, with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Information, organized by CEBEF.