EUFSC Presents Stunning InClassica Festival in Dubai

Over the festival's thirty days of consecutive evening concerts, the foundation welcomed a staggering array of world-renowned performers including 37 acclaimed soloists, seven leading orchestras and eleven distinguished conductors to the UAE's most populous city. Performances took place at the Dubai Opera and Coca-Cola Arena, with countries from across the globe represented in InClassica's impressive lineup.

 

Soloists featured included such notable figures as:

• Grammy Award, twice Gramophone Classical Music Award, Classic Brit Award and 5 times Edison Classical Music Award winner, a musician often referred to as “the greatest living string player in the world today”, famous violinist Maxim Vengerov .
• Exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist, five-times recipient of the Record Academy Prize in Tokyo, three-times recipient of the Echo Deutscher Schallplattenpreis award and multiple Grammy Award-nominee, cellist Mischa Maisky ;
• ECHO Klassik Award winner, Gold Medal of Salzburg and Vienna recipient, pianist Rudolf Buchbinder ;
• Gramophone's Instrumental Album of the Year winner, Critics' Choice at the Classic BRITS awards and CBE recipient, cellist Steven Isserlis ;
• Winner of the Tchaikovsky International Competition, famous pianist Denis Matsuev ;

 

The orchestras present at the festival represented some of the most respected ensembles in the world, including the Russian National Orchestra , Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra and Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz. In addition, the festival welcomed numerous esteemed conductors from across the globe, including such luminaries as Michael Francis , Daniel Raiskin , Marius Stravinsky and Dmitry Yablonsky , amongst others. 

 

As a Malta-based organization, the EUFSC remains committed to promoting Maltese artists and composers abroad, with InClassica also featuring the country's best-loved son, renowned tenor Joseph Calleja , as well as the national Malta Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by its Principal Conductor, Sergey Smbatyan . Music by Maltese composers was also highlighted during the event.

 

The extensive program of concerts featured music by a variety of composers, including a selection of pieces from the festival's Composer-in-Residence, Alexey Shor . Mr Shor is a noted contemporary composer based primarily in New York, whose unique use of tonal harmonies and classically-influenced orchestration have captured the imaginations of audiences across the world. His music has been played in many of the most prestigious institutions in the world, including the Wiener Musikverein, Carnegie Hall, Kennedy Center (Washington DC) and Mariinsky Theater (St. Petersburg), amongst many others. 

 

Crucially, InClassica also represents an important new cultural initiative, not only for Dubai, but for the Middle East as a whole, bringing a new focus on classical music to the region by exposing audiences to some of the most prolific and respected artists in the world today. 

 

In addition to its prolific series of concerts, InClassica also presented two ground-breaking initiatives in Dubai: the Classic Piano International Competition (15th August to 4th September) and the Middle East Classical Music Academy (MECMA) , taking place 4th to 23rd September. Classic Piano welcomed participants from across the world - each a winner of one of the preliminary competitions as part of the '14 Ways to Dubai 'initiative - to compete in the grand finale taking place in Dubai, and featured a panel of distinguished jury members, a record-breaking top prize and performances with the Armenian State Symphony Orchestrain the third and fourth rounds. The MECMA represents a new educational endeavor for the EUFSC, bringing world-class classical music education to the Middle East to an extent not witnessed before in the region. Esteemed professors from around the world - including performers from InClassica as well as jury members from the Classic Piano Competition - held a series of masterclasses in various schools of study including piano, strings, woodwind and brass.

 

“The InClassica Festival, also encompassing both the Classic Piano Competition and Middle East Classical Music Academy, has - I'm pleased to announce - been a terrific success, and marks an exciting new venture for our foundation in the Middle East. That we were able to bring so many world-renowned artists to Dubai for what has been an incredible seven weeks of music-making, is something that we are immensely proud of and value very highly, especially at such an otherwise difficult time for the arts ... Well done to all involved and our thanks go out to all of our performers and professors for making this event so special. ” - Konstantin Ishkhanov , President of the European Foundation for Support of Culture . 

 

InClassica welcomed numerous respected organizations as media partners, including Medici.TV , Euronews , MBC Group and TASS , who produced numerous articles, broadcasts and interviews throughout the event. 

The InClassica International Music Festival took place from 28th August to 26th September 2021. For further information, please visit the official website .