Baltic Sea Festival: past and future
(2008 10 09 01:16)
”Our primary interest is to present the very best musical and artistic products from the Baltic Sea region. The second aspect is to bring emerging phenomena and ensembles to the forefront. The third aspect is political and environmental. I’m not so naďve that I believe that classical musicians will be able to save the Baltic Sea from environmental abuse. But I do believe that our chances to improve the situation will be much greater if we contribute to raising the general consciousness, by permeating the festival with an ecological theme.”
Esa-Pekka Salonen, Baltic Sea Festival Artistic Director.
The sixth edition of the Baltic Sea Festival (August 21 – 30, 2008, Stockholm, Sweden ) attracted a lot of attention: over 10,000 people in the audience at the12 days of concerts in 8 concert venues, including the satellite concerts at the Great Guild Hall in Riga (Latvia) and the Opera House, the Zoo and the Concert House in Tallinn (Estonia).
The program of this year's edition of the festival was very rich, hosting 776 musicians from nine Council of the Baltic Sea States. It all indicates that born from a Finnish, Russia and Swedish initiative the Festival gains more and more importance as the event of the whole Baltic region. Its main goal is to combine outstanding musical performances with a political and environmental attitude towards the role of the Baltic Sea as a life artery in the context of culture and ecology.
Michael Tydén, the Managing Director of Berwaldhallen in Stockholm, the organiser of the festival, promises to expand the festival in the future to include more cities and to organise additional concerts in Helsinki and St Petersburg. He's also pointing out that the three cornerstones of the festival, namely music, the environment and leadership will stay equally valid in the future.
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