About this edition

At the end of January 2022, the fifth edition of the Rossi Festa festival was held. The Belgrade audience had the opportunity to enjoy a diverse program with excellent foreign and domestic artists, in the National Museum and the National Theater in Belgrade.

The opening of the festival, on January 25, was marked by a kind of music exhibition in the Atrium of the National Museum, with a contemporary concert – Baroque Music Exhibition. Among the performers were the chamber ensemble of the oldest Jewish choir in the world – Braća Baruch, chamber instrumental ensemble, as well as eminent soloists – Aleksandra Jovanović (soprano), prof. Ladislav Mezei (cello) and assistant. Stefan Zekić (conductor, baritone). An attractive and varied program composed of carefully selected compositions by Rossi, Monteverdi, Loti, Lidarti, Handel and other relevant baroque composers, was performed under the direction of Ana Grigorović.

At the traditional and unique concert for this festival, Portraits and Remembrance, on the YouTube channel of the festival on January 27, the works of young composers selected in the eastern competition by the artistic council of the festival were broadcasted. The theme of the competition aims to interpret and maintain the memory of events and personalities in the context of the Holocaust, through new works of classical music. In past years, the festival had a surprisingly good response and received applications, presented and promoted works by composers from all over the world, and this year excellent works by seven young composers from five countries were performed: Otto Vanke (Czech Republic), Jorge Andres (USA), Carmel Curiel ( Israel), Marko Karanfilovski (Serbia), Gil Dory (Israel), Chesney Palmer (South Africa) and Pavel Nesit (Czech Republic).

As the part of the festival program is dedicated to scientific research, Dr. Ana Stefanović, our distinguished musician and professor at the Faculty of Music of the University of Arts in Belgrade, held a lecture on the topic – The Story of Esther in Genre Interpretations of Musical Baroque – at the Museum of the National Theater on January 28.

At the concert Inspiration for Violin and Harp, interpreted by Duo Edit, a wide range of programs in an arrangement for this unusual instrumental ensemble – from well-known works of classical music to musicals, were performed on the stage of Raša Plaović.

The festival was organized with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Information, the Jewish Municipality of Belgrade, SOKOJ, the Embassy of Israel, the Italian Institute for Culture, and private donors.