For the second consecutive year, from September 7 to 11, the Halki - Dimitris Kremastinos Music Festival will take place. In its second year, again under the artistic direction of the distinguished conductor Nikos Halias, the Halki - Dimitris Kremastinos Music Festival organises with the invited artists a celebration.
This year's program includes works covering a vast repertoire, from Mozart and Theodorakis to Prokofiev and Rota, while the Cretan lyra will meet the flute and the piano will converse with the violin.
Every evening, at 21:00, the public will have the opportunity to enjoy five concerts in different parts of the island: the port, the precinct of the church of Agios Nikolaos, the house of Dimitris Kremastinos and the archaeological site of the old Village.
This year's opening concert of the Festival, on Thursday, September 7, is dedicated to young people. Camerata Junior, Greece's oldest and most successful youth orchestra, presents a program featuring the favourite works of the world's most famous child prodigy.
Two works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart will be heard in the port of Halki: the Clarinet Concerto with the collaboration of the internationally renowned clarinettist Spyros Mourikis and the famous Symphony no. 40. Camerata Junior is directed by its conductor, Nikos Haliasas.
On Friday, September 8, the ensemble "reZearch" proposes a creative coexistence of voice, instruments and sounds coming from different traditions, with the multifaceted approach to the concept of root (musically and culturally) at its centre. The repertoire of the scheme starts from a wide range of sounds: traditional and, in general, favourite songs, through a prism of sound experimentation, works of Western classical music inspired by the tradition played with a purely traditional instrument, as well as pieces of western music arranged for the particular tonal combination of the ensemble (from Bach to Satie); This concert expects to disturb acoustic and cultural memories, through a fresh sound,
The third concert of the Festival, on Saturday 9 September, is dedicated to a "serenade". The flute and piano duo consisting of the distinguished musicians Sonat & Ece Sözer propose a program of famous works of the flute repertoire and favourite melodies in arrangement for this very sensitive duo.
On Sunday, September 10, DuoYūgen, closing this year a decade of musical career together, faces an inspiring program: performing two of the most famous works ever written, the ballet "Romeo and Juliet" by Sergei Prokofiev inspired by his romantic tragedy of the same name W. Shakespeare and Rimsky-Korsakov's symphonic suite "Schehrazad" respectively inspired by the collection of Middle Eastern fairy tales "One Thousand and One Nights".
These works' violin and piano transcriptions are by violinist Lidia Baich and pianist and conductor Matthias Fletzberger, two influential artists of the world music scene. The concert also contains Antonin Dvořák's four romantic pieces op.75 for violin and piano, where the violin's melodies intertwine with the charming piano line.
This year's event closes on Monday, September 11, with one of the most active and beloved chamber music ensembles of the Athens State Orchestra, the Ensemble of Brass and Percussionists "Metallon", bringing the magic of cinema to Halki. METALLON presents a musical tribute to Nino Rota, with tunes from iconic films such as The Godfather, Octomisis and La Strada.
The chief musician and Artistic Director of the Halki Music Festival, Nikos Haliasas, conducts them. The journalist prefaces the works - film critic for the newspapers Ta Nea and To Vima, Yiannis Zoumboulakis.
The festival is under the auspices of the President of the Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou. The Municipality of Chalkis organises it in collaboration with part of the solution AMKE.
At the same time, it takes place with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture, the full support of the Hellenic Parliament, the Regional Union of Municipalities of the South Aegean and the General Secretariat of the Aegean and Island Policy.
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