Tbilisi Baroque Festival to headline Akamus Berlin orchestra, prized artists

Award-winning German chamber orchestra Akamus will headline international classical artists travelling to Georgia to kick-start this year’s Tbilisi Baroque Festival on November 7.

Honoured with the ECHO Klassik prize, Telemann Prize and Grammy Award, the renowned Berlin orchestra will open the annual Tbilisi event.

Playing at the Shota Rustaveli State Drama Theatre, they will be followed over the next 10 dates of the festival by the Georgian Sinfonietta orchestra, soprano Salome Jicia, French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau and Italian bassoonist Sergio Azzolini.

See a fragment of the Akamus chamber orchestra performing at the Amsterdam Koncertgebouw venue:

They will be joined by more local and foreign artists in celebration of the festival’s third edition.

For the first time, the event will also feature Georgian music, with church chants from the Baroque period and earlier era performed on November 11.

The Georgian and European church music will be played by the local Anchiskhati Choir to underline the link between the local and western cultures.

Jicia and mezzo-soprano Ketevan Kemoklidze will lend their voices to the concert.

French harpsichordist Jean Rondeau will showcase his award-winning talents on the Rustaveli Theatre stage. Photo: warnerclassics.com.

Award-winning harpsichordist Rondeau, distinguished at international harpsichord competitions in Prague and Bruges, will offer festival audience his solo performing talents on November 20.

In the concluding concert on December 7, Sergio Azzolini, praised as "one of the most important bassoonists of his generation”, will be joined by oboists Giovanni de Angeli and Priska Comploi as well as bassoonist Ai Ikeda.

The Tbilisi Baroque Festival is held within the program of ongoing celebrations of 25 years of diplomatic relations between Georgia and Germany.

Year-long cultural events, exhibitions and concerts are marking the date in the two countries.