Promoting cross-border territorial development, enhancing access to culture and cultural production, supporting young musicians, overcoming physical, cultural and political barriers: these are the objectives at the core of the first edition of the Cross-border Music Festival ECHOS, which will take place in Italy and Slovenia from 19 July to 12 September 2013.
The programme of the Festival was presented at the press conference in Nova Gorica on 10 July 2013. Gianni Torrenti, Director for Cultural Affairs of the Region Friuli Venezia Giulia, highlighted “the strategic role of culture in enhancing cross-border cooperation and promoting international relations” and Majda Petejan, Councilor for culture of the City of Nova Gorica, underlined “the importance of EU funding in the field of culture, also for improving the attractiveness of the area as a tourist destination”.
The Festival is one of the activities of the ECHOS project, financed by the EU in the framework of the Cross-border Cooperation Programme Italy-Slovenia 2007-2013 and jointly promoted by Association “Progetto Musica” (lead partner), Javni zavod Kulturni dom Nova Gorica, CEI and Kosovelov dom Sežana – kulturni center Krasa.
In view of an increased cultural cooperation between Friuli Venezia Giulia and Slovenia, the Festival features 14 concerts, 6 in Italy and 8 in Slovenia, with the participation of mixed ensembles, composed of Italian and Slovenian young musicians. The ensembles were set up during a summer school held in Gorizia in May, under the guidance of Tomaž Lorenz, professor of chamber music at the Music Academy of Ljubljana, and Roberto Turrin, professor at the Music Conservatory “G. Tartini” of Trieste.
The concerts, free of charge, offer traditional music, Klezmer and Sephardic music, as well as songs from the Italian and Slovenian music literature, ranging from baroque to contemporary music.
Info Festival: www.echosproject.eu
For more information: fabro@cei.int, baronio@cei.int