The 10th edition of the acclaimed InClassica Malta International Music Festival organised by the European Foundation for Support of Culture (EUFSC) will soon be landing on Malta’s shores, with dozens of concerts being put up on the Mediterranean island between the 17th of April and the 11th of May.
This mouth-watering celebration of classical music will welcome some of the greatest musicians and soloists performing today, including names like Rudolf Buchbinder, Gautier Capuçon, Danielle De Niese, Daniel Hope, Gidon Kremer, Denis Matsuev, Andreas Ottensammer, and Maxim Vengerov, amongst many others. They will be performing at two of Europe’s most illustrious venues, with the 16th-century Mediterranean Conference Centre and the 300-year-old Manoel Theatre both set to house the 26 concerts that will be taking place throughout the festival’s duration.
Legendary award-winning pianist Martha Argerich will be opening the festival at the Manoel – one of Europe’s oldest working theatres – which shall also be playing host to another living legend of the piano world, Grigory Sokolov, later on in the festival on the 9th of May.
InClassica shall also witness the participation of a multitude of world-renowned orchestras, with the local Malta Philharmonic Orchestra being joined by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, and the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, as well as the country’s own Malta Youth Orchestra. These will be directed by some of the most exciting conductors working today, with figures such as Gergely Madaras, Alexander Shelley, Dmitry Yablonsky, and Sergey Smbatyan all making the trip to Malta for the festival, along with many other leading conductors.
Celebrated contemporary composer Alexey Shor will be making his return as the festival’s Composer-in-Residence, and will be contributing a number of works to its programme, including his famed ‘Seascapes’, that shall be performed by Martha Argerich, the ‘Crystal Palace Suite’ that was played at the opening of the 40th anniversary of the prestigious Gramophone Classical Music Awards Ceremony, and his new Violin Concerto, which shall be making its world premiere at this year’s festival.
The 2021 edition of InClassica will also be marking the culmination of the EUFSC’s international piano competition, ‘14 Ways to Malta’. This event saw piano competitions being held all over the world, including Austria, USA, China, Israel, Japan, Italy, South Korea, Switzerland, UK, Belgium, Russia, Armenia and Germany, and the top five ranked participants from each event have now been invited to compete in the ‘Classic Piano’ Malta International Piano Competition that shall be forming part of the festival.
Konstantin Ishkhanov, the President of the EUFSC, hailed the continued growth of the festival, declaring that, “Ever since it was founded 10 years ago, the InClassica festival has been going from strength to strength, increasing in size and ambition every year. This year’s edition, marking the festival’s 10th anniversary, is the culmination of all the hard work and determination that the EUFSC has been investing in this event over the last decade. Featuring our most stellar group of musicians, orchestras, and conductors yet, the Malta International Music Festival will turn Malta into a hub of classical music, bringing giants of the classical music world together in one location, and giving classical music lovers all over the world the opportunity to witness these internationally-renowned artists in performance”.
In addition to InClassica, the EUFSC will also be organising the inaugural edition of the Malta Classical Music Academy this year, which shall be running alongside the festival and will be comprised of three weeks of masterclasses, lectures and concerts with the participation of internationally-renowned musicians and professors such as Boris Kuschnir, Zakhar Bron, Pavel Gililov, Ana Chumachenko, Peter Donohoe, Bernd Goetzke, Artistic Directors Davide Alogna and Giuliano Mazzoccante amongst others.
The Academy will provide students with the unique opportunity of engaging in rewarding discussions with some of the giants of the contemporary classical world. A select few will be given the opportunity to assist the masters in their presentation of the classes, while the most accomplished students shall even be invited to perform alongside these musicians in symphony and chamber orchestras.
Academy attendees will also be granted full access to all the evening concerts taking place throughout the festival.
For more information about InClassica, visit the official website here.
