Susak music festival

Dear Friends and Supporters!

May I introduce the Susak Music Festival, a classical music event that takes place each year in Croatia, at the beautiful, small island of Susak in the north Adriatic sea. The Festival attracts some of the most respected classical musicians and dancers from around the world – and this summer we will be celebrating our 12thFestival!

However, to help us continue into the future with all our enthusiasm and energy, we need just a little of your support for the Susak Music Festival, as described in more detail below.


About the FestivalAs founder and director of the Susak Music Festival my name is Minka Popovic – a Serbian pianist now based in Salzburg, Austria*. The Susak Festival started on this tiny, magical island 11 years ago as a spontaneous idea among a few friends and colleagues who enjoy performing music together. This unique Adriatic island, refreshed by the gentle summer night’s breeze, welcomes a friendly audience of music lovers – young and old – from far and wide for musical performances of international quality in July/August every year. We also run creative Workshops in Music and Dance for young people– with topics suggested by the participants themselves. We have kept our range of activities going over the years – but with minimal financial support.

We aim to continue bringing world-class artists to Susak Island, and to create a colourful repertoire attractive to everybody. To make our concerts and work-shops economically accessible to a wide range of listeners, especially the young, we don’t charge for tickets – all concerts and work-shops are completely free. We love to present chamber music in this more grassroots way, reach in go out to people who may, perhaps, not be tuned in to the classical music world. And for the local community it’s marvellous to have great music performances available on their doorstep.

The Susak church square forms a wonderful setting for our three Festival concerts, giving an exceptional, often mystical atmosphere – although it often seems too small to accommodate all the audience, filled with people across many generations and social backgrounds. This diversity gives the Susak Festival its own distinct character, especially when you compare it with the regular concert formats where we perform as professional musicians. Spontaneity and interaction with our audience are key features of the unique musical experience illuminating our Music Festival.

*More details in the short biography or via YouTube links below.

Challenges of Festival Finance

In recent years we have realized just how difficult it is to organize high level concerts with top musicians. There are only a few sponsors and concert-organizers left who are able to pay decent artist fees. Consequently, many top musicians now give concerts on a no-fee basis, so as to enrich the cultural life, strength and diversity of a country.

However, even when no professional fees are paid, in order to engage outstanding professionals who perform in concert halls worldwide, we have to budget for their reasonable accommodation and travel costs. This is our top priority. Then there are publicity expenses – online advertising, printing concert posters, handbills and programs – plus the hire of audio and video equipment. So we budget only for essential expenses– there are no fees!

Last year we held spontaneous Workshops in music and dance for children. They themselves gave us ideas for programming the Workshops in parallel with our main Concert program. They followed on by giving shows in front of an audience – an inspiring experience for all of us and key for Festival development in future, with the participation of our invited Festival performers. They are not only top professionals, but also richly experienced as teachers. We strongly believe the opportunity to take part in free music and dance Workshops would release and strengthen the creative potential of our youngest generations. The young need to express themselves, so by introducing them to the disciplines involved in music and movement we open the door of liberation and articulation of expression, facilitating craft and creativity.

So one of our main aims, both with the Workshop initiatives and the regular Concerts, is to introduce high culture as an essential part of everyday life, as food for the soul. To achieve this, we have developed a more serious financial strategy– so we would invite you to share this challenge with us, and enable the Susak Music Festival to achieve its potential going forward.


Musicians and the Susak Festival Program

We are delighted to announce that our international group of musicians for the 2018 Edition of the SusakFestival include:

· The FuriantString Quartet based in Berlin·The Slovenian Wind Quintet led by flautist Marko Zupan·Croatian soprano Rea Alaburic·Portuguese guitarist Pedro Ribeiro Rodrigues·Bulgarian bass-player TeodorGanev, from the Salzburg Philharmonie·American dancer Nathan Cottam· MinkaPopovic, pianist.

 The Concert programme is planned as follows:

· 1st Evening: “Summer Winds” (referring to the Slovenian Wind Quintet and the prevalent summer breeze)

Bernhard Crusell:            Trio for clarinet, horn and bassoon – a rarely performed gem

Dmitri Shostakovich:      Waltzes for clarinet, flute and piano

Dmitri Shostakovich:      Burlesque

Saint-Saens:                      Tarantella (a virtuoso piece for the same setting)

Molbe:                                Fantasy for horn, bassoon and piano

And finally a famous jazz jewel:

George Gershwin:          Rhapsody in Blue (as an arrangement for wind quintet)

 

· 2nd Evening: “All that baroque and jazz” 

This is dedicated to many European baroque composers,including J. S. Bach, H. Purcell, G. Händel, A. Vivaldi and also to the famous jazz pianist Claude Bolling. He composed an extraordinary jazz suite (dressed up as baroque) in a baroque setting: Bolling’s“Picnic Suite” is rich with typical baroque counterpoint, polyphony, Concerto-grosso dialogues, and on the other hand: modal harmonies, jazz beats and improvisatory-passages.

This promises to be an extraordinary adventure – both for the players and for the audience.

 

· 3rd Evening: “Far away and beyond”

The last thematic unit of our Festival program presents the motives of death and love archetypes, myth and mysticism through different epochs: Elizabethan arias, Bizet, Rodrigo, Prokofiev, and finally Debussy with his “Prélude a l'après midi d'un faune”.

Everyone had his own answer on these topics, but left even more questions. As Leonard Bernstein said: “A work of art does not answer questions, it provokes them; and its essential meaning is in the tension between the contradictory answers.”

 
Finally, a new composition by the contemporary Croatian composer and jazz guitarist Renato Rožić (based in Cologne) is an important feature in the programme. His composition “Passion Christi” is a string quartet written specially for the Susak Music Festival – a great honour and a valuable contribution to the development of contemporary artistic thought.


Any contribution towards making this event possible are highly appreciated!

For anyone who donates more than 20€ we prepared a USB stick with Susak music festival logo. On it You will be able to find our Festival ensembles, soloists and composers performing, and You will have an extra space for Your personal storage. We'll keep You updated, as we plan many other surprises as well.

Help our Festival grow and be a part of a big Susak festival family!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FqLy5sR6ObA 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LgKV9Vd24UU&t=13s 


My Biography:

Minka Popovic is currently Salzburg-based Serbian pianist. She enters the Music Academy in Belgrade aged sixteen and she finishes it in class of Prof. Nevena Popovic, with the title of the Best student of the generation 2004/2005. She entered the Universität Mozarteum in Salzburg/Austria in 2008, where she finished her education (both bachelor and master) with the best grades, in class of Prof. Cordelia Höfer-Teutsch. She was studying with Prof. Eldar Nebolsin (at Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin) as well.

Her music-career crowns the number of prized at international piano competitions such as: Four times first prize winner of Serbian national piano competitions; First prize at Chopin competition in Rome (2005); 2nd prize at Athens international piano competition in Greece (2006); 2nd prize at Villa de Capdepera international competition in Spain (2006); special 1st prize at Banjaluka Bienalle (2008); 3rd prize at “XXI Ramon Lull Rotary Club Piano Competition” (2014); Prize for the “exceptional cultural contributions” from the royal family Karadjordjevic; the prize of Association of classical musicians of Serbia (UMUS) for the “Best young artist” (2013), a.o.

She held a number of concerts in many European countries: Germany, Austria, Romania, Croatia, Spain, Greece, Serbia and some of her most distinguished performances are the ones at Berliner Philharmonie. She had her debut at Kammermusik Saal as a part of “Philharmonische Salon” of Berliner Philharmoniker cycle, and she repeated her success two years later at the same hall. Alongside with her solo-engagements, she devoted herself to chamber music, performing in many different ensembles. She was performing alongside with Mozateum Orchester soloists, Salzburg Philharmonie soloists, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra musicians, a.o. She recorded a CD with her Susak Trio – flute, saxophone, piano (winning the Braunschweig international competition) and at the moment she is releasing a double CD with Slovenian flutist Marko Zupan, dedicated to chamber music for flute and piano of German romantic époque (Hedone Records, London).