URUGUAYAN guitarist Pierri.photo: www.gitarrewien.at
TOP guitar players will gather to perform at the first annual international festival The Guitar in the Gallery in the eastern Slovak town of Košice from May 10 to 15.
After a break of seven years, the event follows up on the successful four-year tradition of the festival in the Budimír Manor House. This time, though, it has a new host: the Východoslovenská galleria (Eastern Slovak Gallery) on Košice's Main Street.
"We received an offer to organise the festival at the gallery, which has an aesthetically and acoustically good interior," said Štefan Rybár, the festival's organiser.
The Czech guitar-viola duo of Petr Saidl and Milan Řehák will open the festival on Monday, May 10, and Slovak guitar duo La Barre, formed by Ján Labant and Peter Remeník, will perform the next day. Wednesday will, according to the organiser, present the best Hungarian guitarist, Jozsef Eötvös. After a one-day break, the festival will welcome one of the world's best guitarists, Alvaro Pierri from Uruguay. Prague's Guitar Quartet will close the event on Saturday. All concerts begin at 19:00.
"Alvaro Pierri is the festival's headliner, but they all are great," Rybár said.
The five concerts will feature works by composers from the 17th century up through today. The musicians will introduce the best of their repertoires.
The event comes close to the date of Slovakia's EU entry because the festival follows the schedule of the previous years in Budimír, when it was held at the beginning of May. "It symbolically marks the festival's start," said Rybár.
However, EU enlargement will have no future impact on the number of performers. "Five concerts is quite a big number even for a large world festival. Moreover, the number is financially limited. The decisive point is the quality, which I think we have managed to ensure."
By Zuzana Habšudová
