July 10, 2018 - The International “Days of Music” festival will be held in Herceg Novi for the 35th time, from the 10th to 20th of July, when the festival will celebrate the 15th anniversary and its 35th edition, which is an introduction to the new era of the festival, with a quality program, a new piano concert, and artists from Europe and Asia, as announced during the recent press conference held by Herceg Fest Organization.
The director of this organization, Gordana Krcunović, was proud to announce all the sponsors and partners of the festival: “As in all manifestations produced by Herceg Fest, which are of significance for the city, its culture and tourist offer, the Municipality of Herceg Novi, with the financial support of the Tourist Organization, is the patron of this festival. The Ministry of Culture traditionally supports the festival, so at the competition for the co-financing of events and festivals, the "Days of Music" is dedicated to the amount of 8,000 euros. The cost calculation for the festival, which amounts to about 30,000 EUR, is significantly reduced by the participation of local businessmen. The long-term sponsors and partners of the festival were hotel "Sun resort", "Blue line" and the company "OHM Mamula Montenegro"."
She pointed out that classical music is always modern and contemporary, and the language of music is universal and understandable, a language that pierces all distances, time, culture and generations so that this is a sufficient reason for this representative festival to be visited.
The President of the Festival's Artistic Council, Milena Lučić, said she was proud of the long tradition of the festival and thanked all those who supported the festival throughout the years. She put special emphasis on the contribution of the Ideal Creator of the Festival, celebrated maestro Boris Kraljević, who is a pianist and music teacher on several continents.
An interesting occurrence was also announced during the conference: during the last year’s festival, certain renowned artists have, partially or completely, waived their fees to contribute to the purchase of a new piano for the city. As the representatives of Herceg Fest say, the new piano (Yamaha) was purchased in Hamburg, and it will be presented to the audience at the concert of the young pianist Andrija Jovović on July 12th in the Park Hall. Accordingly, this year's event has been successful in its efforts to get the festival a new piano, all thanks to the donation of 10,000 EUR by OHM Mamula Montenegro, the support of the Municipality of Herceg Novi, the fees donated by artists at the 34th Days of Music, contributions of Exodus and numerous individuals who, as donors, took part in this massive investment.
The concept of the festival was announced by the pianist Boris Kraljević: “On the stage of the Kanli tower, „Days of Music“ will be officially opened by the choir "Collegium musicum" with maestro Dragana Jovanović from Belgrade. When it comes to "Collegium musicum", of course, our first thought goes to Darinka Matić - Marović, our dear and legendary fellow citizen, who during her unusually fruitful and successful career, was an inspiration and direct support to many young musicians, and among her most representative followers or successors is the maestro Dragana Jovanović. I invite all the fans of extraordinary choral singing to enjoy carefully chosen great repertoire of this year”.
During the press conference, it was confirmed that a trio from the Czech Republic will perform on July 15th (pianist and piano teacher in Munich, Germany, Iliriana Gjoni, Solocellist of the National Theater Prague, Bledar Zajmi and the renowned Czech flutist, Miroslav Matejka), the Enseble of Tokyo will hold three concerts on the 16th, 18th and 20th, while the maestro Kraljević will perform on the final night.
The conductor Dragana Jovanović spoke about the performance of the academic choir Collegium musicum and presented the program of the concert: “We will produce the majority of what Dara has already set for years, we have restored some of these compositions, Mokranjac's Liturgy, which we have not sang for a long time, and I think that now is a good time to do something like that. Then, the famous "Bačke pošalice" of the former Dean of the Music Academy in Belgrade, Dušan Kostić. We have now regained Dara’s vision, and we simply want to have this framework of a program concept in the way it has been designed and guided. We have enriched it a bit, but at a minimum, because we really want to remind ourselves of everything that was good in the past”.
During the festival, there will be 45 artists performing for the works of world composers: Bach, Beethoven, Chopin, Mozart, Britten and others. Apart from Collegium Musicum and Andrija Jovović, the audience will have the opportunity to hear the Czech Trio and the famous Ensemble of Tokyo, an ensemble composed of solos, and the most famous ensemble of that type in Japan.
