Description
Lipatti Evenings Festival represents a project that encompasses a series of concerts, performances and masterclasses involving Norwegian artists and also other acclaimed artists of the world.The contributes to developing a platform showcasing classical music performed by international artists and offering scope for knowledge exchange between artists. It also provides audiences with access to classical music. The project initiates and consolidates cultural dialogue in the field of classical music, between Romania and the Northern Europe with involvement of Dinu Lipatti, a European level prominent personality. Organising an international section within the framework of Lipatti Evenings Festival, and also Lipatti Evenings sections within the framework of renown Icelandic and Norwegian classical music festivals, responds to a need of the Romanian public to know performers from geographically distant areas, and also to the need of the Norwegian and Icelandic public to see another face of Romania, represented by exceptional musicians, encouraging artistic mobility and facilitating the intercultural dialogue, as an element of European cultural policies. The project offers the possibility for experience exchange in the field of musical education and interpretation, by organising masterclasses, in the partner countries. Participation scholarships will be granted to deserving students of Roma, Hebrew and Hungarian minorities for such courses, and also for students from Cernăuți and Chișinău. The Icelandic Chamber Music Festival (Iceland) is partner in this project. It runs a festival for classical and new music in Kopavogur and Reykjavik Iceland The Valdres Festival (Norway) is also a partner in this project. The festival has grown progressively to become one of the most important summer academies of classical music in Northern Europe, as well as a popular festival with a lot of renowned artists from Norway and abroad.
Summary of project results
Norwegian performers are largely unfamiliar to the Romanian audience who can rarely enjoy listening to authentic values within ordinary philharmonic symphony seasons in Romania. Due to the project the audience listened to great performers, resounding names of Norwegian piano players and to a giant of the world piano interpretation, Andrei Gavrilov, very attached and dedicated musicians to the well-known pianist Dinu Lipatti, who was brought in the audience memory with each event. The project was a great advantage to Iceland because this country does not benefit from a cultural tradition to recognize and uphold true musical values, always missed by the Icelandic audience. For young performers, future musicians with brilliant careers, to meet great artists like Andrei Gavrilov, Hakon Austbø and Mihaela Martin in Romania, but also Romanian teachers in Norway and Iceland meant to experience an event that marked their lives and put them in front of several interpretation schools. Meanwhile, Mihaela Martin, originating from a Roma family and becoming not only a great violinist but also a great professor, became a living example for Roma young musicians. On the other hand, the project has supported young performers not only by promoting them in concerts and recitals, but also through scholarships for masterclasses and through the charity concert, within which funds for two young Roma musicians (remarkably gifted but with great financial problems) were raised. The main deliverables were the concerts (10 concertos and 20 recitals), masterclasses with great, world reknown pianists and violinists from Norway, Russia or Romania, 14 pre-concert-talks, 15 conferences, concerts of the debutants, 1 charity concert, youth participation at masterclasses in Romania (286 participants to masterclasses and workshops), Norway and Iceland and presentation of Romanian school interpretation within recitals and masterclasses in Norway and Iceland - all under the impressive personality of the Romanian pianist Dinu Lipatti, brought back into the audience’s memory by the Lipatti Evenings project and its events. Most important cultures were tied together, as well as performing schools, the audience of all three countries benefited from valuable artistic presences. It was proposed to the Norwegian public another side of the Romanian people through its culture and as worthy bearer of world culture, an extremely competitive nation in terms of interpretation and creation.
Summary of bilateral results
The two partnerships offered an opportunity of knowledge by the audience for the three participating states of Romanian musicians in Norway and Iceland and the Norwegian in Romania - a line involving the possible transfer of artists and masters, students from one country to another. Icelandic public was helped by this project by the Icelandic Partner’s endeavor to come in contact with Romanian representatives of the performing art at a very high level and to get to know the culture of a country in southeastern Europe. The Norwegian audience and the Icelandic one came into contact not only with the world reknown value of the great artist Dinu Lipatti (of course in memoriam), but also with the current Romanian school of interpretation, too little known in these countries. For Norway, in particular, the quality of Romanian art of performing had to advocate for a brighter and most creative side of Romania through its culture. The project sought to counteract the negative image often mistakenly emphasized that hovers above the Romanians living in Norway. We estimate that the goal was reached, because the audience admired and enjoyed Romanian interpreters. Through its partnerships with Norway's Valdres Sommersymfoni and Icelandic Chamber Music, the Lipatti Evenings Festival gained visibility across Romania's borders.