(20 June 2016) An international event arrives this year in Italy for the first time after having made stops in several cities of Europe. The 43rd edition of the International Congress of Viola, titled “Connecting Cultures and Generations” will be held in Cremona from 4 to 8 October with the sponsorship of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, the Lombardy Region, the Municipality of Cremona and chamber of Commerce of Cremona. To animate the conference city will be master-classes and concert lessons given by world renowned musicians and musicologists from all over the world, and a festival full of concerts of excellence, solos and chamber music, and the viola, performances by internationally renowned artists such as Ettore Causa, Alfonso Ghedin, Bruno Giuranna, Michael Kugel, Dana Zemtsov, Tabea Zimmermann. There will be more than 400 violists representing 18 countries: Brazil, Canada, China, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Britain, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Switzerland, Thailand, United States of America. In addition there will be numerous other high-profile events in the programme taking place every day from 9:00 until late, mainly in the Auditorium and Maffei Room of the Chamber of Commerce, the Museum of the Violin, and the Theatre Philodramatists. The context of this conference is very special: those who will be in Cremona in October, in fact, can also admire the famous “Messiah” by Antonio Stradivari, one of the most valuable violins emerged from his workshop – in 1716 – and kept at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford. Rarely played, it has not moved from there since 1939: the 300 year old instrument will finally be on display at the Museum of the Violin in Cremona for the Stradivari Festival, 24 September to 9 October. (Red)
Musicians from around the world in Cremona for the International Viola Conference
