the belgrader
Friday, Feb. 6 - Thursday, Feb. 12, 2009
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Guitar Art Festival The Belgrade Guitar Art Festival brings together Oscar-winning composer of Western movie scores, Ennio Morricone, acclaimed lute player Edin Karamazov, and ledgendary rocker Sting, in one of Serbia’s most important annual musical events, offering concerts, master classes, lectures, competitions and exhibitions.
Sunday, February 8
Sting & Edin Karamazov Not many people can get away with naming themselves after a verb. Sting is one of the few who can. A pop culture icon, Sting is a founding member of one of the most popular rock bands in the history of modern music, The Police, and has had an equally successful solo music career. Most recently, Sting ventured into “new” musical territory with an album featuring the music of acclaimed 16th century Elizabethan songwriter John Dowland entitled ‘Songs From the Labyrinth’, which had a surprisingly good showing, for classical music, on the billboard charts around the world. The album was recorded with the help of Bosnian lute master Edin Karamazov, who has his own solo album coming out soon called ‘The Lute is a Song’. Sava Centar, Great Hall, Milentija Popovica 9
Friday, February 13
Miroslav Tadic, Vlatko Stefanovski and Teodosi Spasov Miroslav Tadic is a classically trained guitarist from Serbia who was named in the January 1997 issue of Guitar Player magazine as one of the 30 most radical and individual guitarists. His interest in Macedonian folk music has spurred a relationship with Macedonian guitar hero Vlatko Stefanovski, who is very well known in the Balkans and throughout the world for his influential and innovative use of folk music in his guitar playing. At the festival, Tadic and Stefanovski will be joined by Bulgarian Teodosi Spasov, who leads his own band and plays a variety of wind instruments. Sava Centar, Great Hall, Milentija Popovica 9
Saturday, February 7
Vincent Amigo Sextet Acclaimed as the most brilliant flamenco guitarist of his generation, Vicente Amigo won a Latin Grammy in 2001 and has quickly become an international flamenco guitar star. He has won numerous prizes, and shared the stage with legendary artists such as Mahavishnu Orchestra, fusion genius John Mc Laughlin, pop legend David Bowie, and other guitar virtuosos such as Al Di Meola and Paco de Lucia. The Spanish National Ballet has also performed an interpretation of his composition Poeta. Sava Centar, Great Hall, Milentija Popovica 9
Monday, February 9
Alirio Diaz Alirio Diaz is a Venezuelan guitar wizard who studied in the 1960s with the great classical guitar master Andres Segovia. He is also a published author, who has written an autobiography and a book called ‘Music from the Lives and Labours of the Venezuelan’. Diaz also had an international guitar contest named after him for his achievements in music education. Performing the same night will be Edin Karamazov’s quartet, Vojin Kocic, and Kazuhito Yamashita Ilija M. Kolarac Foundation Hall, Studentski Trg 5
Tuesday, February 10
Wednesday, February 11
Thursday, February 12
Xuefei Yang
Aleksandar Hadzi Djordjevic
Costas Cotsiolis
Xuefei Yang was the first guitarist to graduate from the Central Conservatory of Music in Beijing with a Bachelor’s degree and the first Chinese student ever to receive an international scholarship to study at the Royal Schools of Music, in London. Famed guitarist John Williams was so impressed with her playing that he gave two of his own Smallman signature guitars to her Conservatory especially for her and other top students to play. She also has an exclusive international recording contract with EMI Classics. Performing the same night will be Pavel Steidl, Gabriela Demterova, Roland Dyens and Badi Assad. Ilija M. Kolarac Foundation Hall, Studentski Trg 5
Djordjevic graduated from the Academy of Music Art in Prague under guitar greats Scepan Raka and Martin Misuvetchka. His main interest is teaching young people. A number of his students have won international awards and are now performing actively as professionals. Djordjevic also participates in seminars and lectures all over the world. This will be his second Guitar Art Festival, having performed at the inaugural festival with fellow guitarist Srdjan Tosic. Also performing will be local artists, including Vera Ogrizovic, Srdjn Tosic, Zoran Anic, Vesna Petkovic, Darko Karajic, Milos Janjic, Zoran Krajisnik and Dusan Bogdanovic. Ilija M. Kolarac Foundation Hall, Studentski Trg 5
This Greek guitarist has played with some of the best symphony orchestras - Paris, BBC, Junge Deutsche Philarmonie and has played in some of the most important guitar festivals around the world. He teaches throughout Greece and lectures at seminars around the world. Also performing on this night will be Zoran Dukic, Aniello Desiderio, Roberto Aussel and the EOS Guitar Quartet. Ilija M. Kolarac Foundation Hall, Studentski Trg 5
Saturday, February 14
Ennio Morricone & Roma Sinfonietta This acclaimed Academy Award-winning composer needs no introduction. He has composed and arranged scores for more than 500 film and television productions and is best know for composing for the characteristic soundtracks of Sergio Leone’s spaghetti westerns ‘A Fistful of Dollars’, ‘For a Few Dollars More’, ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’ and ‘Once Upon a Time in the West’. He has been nominated for five Academy Awards for Best Music, Original Score between 1979 and 2001. Perhaps as a consolation for never actually winning, Morricone received an Honorary Academy Award in 2007 “for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music.” Belgrade Arena, Arsenija Carnojevica 58