MELOS-ÉTOS is a festival of contemporary classical music that will have its 12th anniversary this year. The event comprising 20 concerts and 83 musical and multimedia works will take place between November 8-14 in several venues of the Slovak capital. The main guest will be renowned Finnish composer Kaija Saariaho.
“The festival is getting into a new phase,” head of the Centre of Music – which organises the festival – Oľga Smetanová told the TASR newswire. “For the first time, the festival is cooperating in ordering a new work that will have a world premiere here, by such a renowned composer [i.e. Saariaho]. We have not experienced this in the festival’s history,” Smetanová added.
In total, Melos-Étos will have 10 world premieres, including four composed specifically for the festival. Apart from Saariaho’s chamber version of oratory La Chambre aus Échos, Slovak composer Ľubica Čekovská wrote the opera Dorian Gray.
Part of the festival, which this year is connected with the ISCM World New Music Days, is the annual conference of the International Association of Music Information Centres (IAMIC), which secures the presence of foreign guests from many countries worldwide.
The music festival also offers several accompanying multimedia events and workshops, like a sound installation by Jonáš Gruska, adapted specifically for the chimes at the department store on Kamenné Square. However, due to technical complexity, it will be only played twice. The full festival programme – which also includes, of course, Slovak composers and performers – can be found at hc.sk/melos- etos.
