Night Serenades festival hosting renown musical artists, workshops for youth

Internationally renowned names of classical music and educational events for young performers are two of the highlights of this year's Night Serenades international music festival hosting listeners in two of Georgia's largest cities.

Pianist Gloria Campaner, clarinetist Alessandro Carbonare and bandeonist Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi are among headliners of the event, alongside violinist Andres Gabetta and the Georgian Virtuosi Orchestra of the festival.

Those attending events in the programme also find German clarinettist Sabine Grofmeier and American pianist Katie Mahan as part of the line-up, while a range of master classes, workshops and open talks has been drawn up for up-and-coming artists.

The trio of Campaner, Carbonare and Pietrodarchi are set to perform in the Grand Hall of the Tbilisi State Conservatoire later this month, in the second leg of the festival that will follow the first concerts hosted at the Batumi State Drama Theatre in the Black Sea city last month.

The two-day bill at the Tbilisi venue will see the three artists offer renditions of music by the Argentine composer Astor Piazzolla, while Gabetta and the festival orchestra will use their slot in the programme to deliver the works of Antonio Vivaldi.

In the educational sections of the festival, the visiting international artists will join Georgian counterparts, music professors and artists to support young talent both in the capital city of the country and other regions.

These events will host students of music schools of various educational stages, including those with disabilities, with organisers also seeking to facilitate sharing of experience not only between performers but also with audiences.

An earlier event of the festival unveiled A Celebration of Music, a book on the career of the internationally recognised violinist and conductor Liana Issakadze, the founder of Night Serenades.

Born in Tbilisi, Issakadze played her first solo violin concert at age 10 in 1956, with her subsequent career heavily influenced with support and advice from the famed Soviet violinist David Oistrakh, with the emerging artist working as his assistant for two years.

The recipient of the 1965 Grand Prix from the Marguerite Long and Jacques Thibaud International Competition in Paris, Issakadze was also awarded first place at the 1970 Jean Sibelius International Violin Competition in Helsinki.

A violinist and conductor, she has been distinguished for her performing career with the titles including People's Artist of the Soviet Union and the Order of Honour of Georgia.

She founded the Night Serenades festival in 1983 in Georgia’s north-western region of Abkhazia. Interrupted by the 1992-1993 armed conflict in the region, the event was restored in central Georgia's resort town of Borjomi.

It assumed its current form in Batumi in the 2000s and has hosted artists and bands including pianist Yuri Povolotsky, clarinetists Alex and Daniel Gurfinkel and German conductor Justus Frantz in its editions.