It is for the first time that Vatroslav Lisinski Concert Hall has organized the Festival, at which Croatia’s best musicians will present themselves to the audiences in Vienna.

 

The programme was presented by Deputy Mayor of Zagreb Jelena Pavičić Vukičević, Festival Producer Davor Merkaš and Deputy Head of Lisinski Hall Programme Department Pero Glavinić.

 

Those present could listen to the Bow vs.  Plectrum duo that will also appear at the Festival.

 

The varied programme will be dominated by classical and jazz music. The Festival will be opened by soprano Evelin Novak on 29 October. She will perform the most beautiful Lied pieces by Richard Strauss, Rimsky-Korsakov, Brahms and Rachmaninoff, and, of course, by Croatian composers: Dora Pejačević, Josip Hatze and Ivan Zajc. Evelin is member of the Berlin State Opera ensemble; in Vienna, she will be accompanied by pianist Matthias Samuil.

 

On 31 October, the Porgy & Bess Club will host Matija Dedić, one of Croatia's most renowned musicians. Matija is a splendid jazz pianist, one of the few Croatian musicians who have been collaborating with world-renowned greats. At the Croatian Music Festival in Vienna, Matija will play alongside two top artists: Philadelphia-born American drummer Gene Jackson and Dutch bassist living in New York Joris Teepe.

 

Jazz lovers will also be able to enjoy their favourite genre on 9 November, when the Mate Matišić Trio will play on the stage of the Croatian Centre. They play the music of Django Reinhardt and the famous Hot Club de France jazz group. The Trio is composed of excellent virtuoso musicians: brilliant gypsy jazz musician Mate Matišić, Jurica Štelma on double bass and highly esteemed Marko First on violin.

 

The Festival will continue with a premiere in one of Vienna’s most beautiful sacral buildings. The Chamber Orchestra of the Zagreb Academy of Music and the Albe Vidaković Church Music Institute Choir with talented young singers will perform under conductor and composer Zoran Novačić in grand St. Peter’s Church. They will give the first public performance of Novačić's Magnificat, a vivacious, modern piece of great artistic energy. This will also be the first time after more than two hundred years that Tantum ergo will be performed again, an inspiring sacral piece by Antun Sorkočević, an erudite scholar, nobleman, politician and composer, who lived in Dubrovnik at the turn of the 19th century.

 

A new music sensation on the Croatian scene, Bow vs.  Plectrum, will also perform at the Croatian Centre on 22 November. In only one year of their joint career, Filip Novosel on tamburitza and Tihomir Hojsak on double bass have shown how much positive musical energy and emotion the unexpected combination of these two instruments can create in jazz music. Due to numerous appearances throughout Croatia and abroad, this duo is very popular on the Croatian ethno jazz scene, attracting great media attention, as well.

 

Ana Vidović, one of the rare Croatian musicians who has managed to build a global career in the past years, will present her guitar skills within Vienna’s most famous guitar cycle, Jeunesse Austria, which features only the world’s most prominent guitarists, at Vienna’s famous Konzerthaus (Franz Schubert Hall) on Friday, 24 November.  Endowed with extraordinary talent that placed her among the world’s music elite, Ana is well-known to audiences and critics around the world for her beautiful tone, extremely precise technique, deep reflection on the pieces she interprets and strong dedication to music.

 

The festival will be concluded by the Croatian Radio and Television Jazz Orchestra conducted by Andreas Marinello at the Porgy & Bess Club on 26 November. The Croatian Radio and Television Jazz Orchestra is the only professional orchestra of the kind in Croatia. It is among the world’s longest-existing big bands, as it has been performing continuously for seventy years now.