The grand finale of the #Synergy project this summer at KotorArt Don Branko’s Music Days

The European Cooperation Project – #synergy: Sharpening the Capacities of the Classical Music Industry in the Western Balkans, initiated by the KotorArt International Festival, and supported by the European Commission through the Creative Europe program, is entering its grand finale this summer. During the two festival evenings, 12 new compositions created as part of the project will be premiered. One of the ideas of the project is bringing together some of the biggest art music festivals in the region, including the Belgrade Festivals Center (BELEF and BEMUS), the Dubrovnik Summer Festival, the Ljubljana Festival, the Vox Baroque organization from Albania and the F. Chopin Association from Kosovo*, and after the premiere performance in Kotor, the concert tour will continue at all partner festivals in the region.

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Montage Week in Kotor starts today

Today, April 28, there begins the Montage Week, one of the most significant activities within the #synergy project. The Montage Week will take place in the Creative Hub in Kotor and s preparation for the festival tour. In the period from April 28 to May 3, Kotor, as the host city, will host all project participants – 12 composers, more than 20 musicians, all partners and scientific researchers in the field of culture. During the intensive week in Kotor Creative Hub, musicians and composers will work together on the preparation of new pieces, and at the same time, young cultural managers will present the results of their research on the position of art music in the region. The end of the Montage Week is scheduled for May 3, when the composers will present themselves to the audience in a public conference scheduled for 11 a.m. and share their experiences about the creation of their pieces, the process and the way they approached the work on the given topics. Also, there will be a discussion about the publication (Classical Music Production Guidebook), which is the result of six workshops held during the previous three years in six different countries, including Montenegro. This Guidebook is the first document of its kind in the region which summarizes approaches to art music production in the Western Balkans.

The #synergy project is well known to the festival audience and the public. It was supported by the European Commission, making KotorArt the first organization in Montenegro that received the opportunity and trust of the European Union to be the bearer of a project supported within the Creative Europe program. We invite those interested to attend the public conference on May 3 in Kotor and find out the entire process of creating 12 new works, commissions within the project. With this project, as well as a series of other activities, KotorArt Don Branko’s Music Days confirm that they promote and nurture contemporary creativity and show a high degree of social responsibility, care for heritage, its creation, nurturing and preservation – the PR department of the Festival pointed out.

Projekat #synergy predstavlja višeslojan projekat u kojem učestvuju festivali, producenti, kompozitori, muzičari, menadžeri u kulturi. Ciljevi projekta su usavršavanje i povezivanje kulturnih radnika u čijem su fokusu festival i umjetnička muzika, zatim podsticanje komponovanja novih djela klasične muzike inspirisanih lokalnom baštinom svih navedenih gradova i zemalja, počev od Kotora i Crne Gore, kao i uvezivanje i saradnja mladih muzičara, kompozitora i organizacija koje se bave umjetničkom muzikom na Zapadnom Balkanu i unutar Evropske unije.

Photo: Duško Miljanić