Matured enough, this edition of REMUSICA festival continues to be the central event where the works of Kosovar/Albanian composers are promoted. This year we are presenting even a greater number of works compared with former editions( around 40 works, starting from miniatures for clarinet up to big symphonic pieces).
An important focus will be offered to the works of the youngest generation of Kosovo composers-Dafina, Kreshnik, Lyra, Kushtrim, Donika, Drinor, Arbenita and Liburn. They have had been given the
chance to show their talent already in the previous editions of “Remusica”, thus they continue to practice the mastery and the profession of a composer, a profession that receives not the needed attention by institutional strategic plans related to the development of culture in our country.
This year’s edition is also distinguished by the presence of international soloist such as Ophélie Gaillard (France), Florian Vlashi (Spain), the old friend of “Remusica”, Marcel Worms( for whom this is the third participation) and the special presence of the talented Kosovar guitarist Petrit Çeku, who has been declared as the best performer of Croatia last year. Ceku, will be presented
with a recital (21 May) and also as a soloist in the performance of the Kosovo Philharmony (24 May).
This year, we are also proud to have a dignified presence of musicians from Albania, with excellent performers like Fatos Qerimaj and Arben LLozi who will perform in a thematic concert “New Albanian Music”.
Beside the soloists who carry the most weight of the festival, the presence of our two distinguished ensembles-Kosovo Philharmonic (under the direction of an extraordinary conductor Toshio Yanagisawa) and Philharmonic Choir(under the direction of Rafet Rudi) is of particular importance.
Continuing the tradition, Remusica marks three various anniversaries. The 100th anniversary of the birth of the pioneer of Kosovar music-Lorenc Antoni will be marked with the review of his opus in specially dedicated musicological tribune (22 May) and on the performance of his distinguished choral works(26 May) and of his orchestral work in the concert of Kosovo Philharmony(24 May).
The 60th birth anniversary of Rafet Rudi will open this years edition (21 May), while the third anniversary will be dedicated to the 200th anniversary of the death of the classic’s colossal–Josef Haydn. Based on the idea by Florian Vllashi, (a distinguished Albanian violinist with a superb career in Spain), Remusica will mark the “world’s year of Haydn” with the performance of two works written by famous composers of the beginning of XXth century, Debusy and Ravel, who a century ago, similarly dedicated their works to the 100th death anniversary of Haydn.
In the traditional slot for book promotion, we will present an interesting book, one of the very rare of this type in Balkans, and surely the unique in the current albanian culture-“The Music Teaching Method” by Prof. Seniha Spahiu (The tribune of 24 May).
Last but not least, we had asked Kosovar composers to write ‘methodic/ pedagogic” works for Clarinet dedicated to the first cycle of the music schools, based on the material of our Albanian folk’s songs, trying thus to fulfill a big gap in our music pedagogic literature. Around 20 miniature works have arrived and will be performed in the premiere performance on a thematic concert of 28th of May.
Putting together all these different aspects of “Remusica” festival 2009, would have not been possible without the generous and very much appreciated support by all those who supported us. We would like to offer our special thanks to the -Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Kosovo; Prishtina Municipal Assembly; IPKO company and especially to the Embassies of France and Netherlands in Kosovo.
Rafet RUDI, kompozitor / composer