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Giovanni Sollima

The first performance of Giovanni Sollima's
'Tarantulae Cadenzas' took place at the
Küstendorf Klasik Russian Music Festival

 

On 13 July 2019, the first performance of Tarantulae Cadenzas by Italian composer Giovanni Sollima took place at the end of the Küstendorf Klasik Russian Music Festival (10-12 July 2019), an annual festival-contest created by Bosnian-born Serbian film director, actor and musician Emir Kusturitsa with support from the Russian oil company Gazprom Neft. The festival took place in Küstendorf, also known as Drvengrad, which is the traditional village which Kusturitsa built for his 2004 film Life is a Miracle. It's situated 200km south-west of Belgrade, in Serbia's Zlatibor district.

Detail from a 2010 panoramic photo of the village of Küstendorf (Drvengrad) in Serbia
Detail from a 2010 panoramic photo of the village of Küstendorf (Drvengrad) in Serbia

The festival featured cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan, winner of the fourteenth Tchaikovsky International Competition, and Honoured Artist of the Republic of Armenia, violinist Khachatur Almazyan, founder of the Almazian Symphony, the South-Sakhalin Chamber Orchestra and Tigran Hakhnazaryan, leader and conductor of the USKO.

Narek Hakhnazaryan commented: 'For me, a great event is to play the world premiere of the great Italian composer Giovanni Sollima in such an amazing place as the village of Küstendorf and with such an amazing orchestra as the South Sakhalin Orchestra'.

Khachatur Almazyan said: 'We are grateful for the trust and the opportunity to perform the world premiere of Tarantulae Cadenzas composition by the famous Italian composer Giovanni Sollima. We also thank Emir Kusturica for the invitation and the audience for the wonderful reception'.

Giovanni Sollima's 'Tarantulae Cadenzas' at Küstendorf Klasik 2019
Giovanni Sollima's Tarantulae Cadenzas at Küstendorf Klasik 2019

Postminimalist Italian composer and cellist Giovanni Sollima was born in Palermo on 24 October 1962 into a family of musicians. He studied at the Conservatorio di Palermo - cello with Giovanni Perriera and composition with his father, Eliodoro Sollima, and later continued his studies at Musikhochschule Stuttgart and at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg. Sollima's music is influenced by Mediterranean ethnic traditions, jazz, rock and minimalism. He has collaborated with American musician and poet Patricia Lee Smith and also with Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project.

Posted 28 July 2019 by Ekaterina Karmak

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