Sketches of the Gypsy Devils

Silvia Šarköziová of the Gypsy Devils

The Gypsy Devils are a fantastic band who played with the Maribor Festival Orchestra at the Maribor Music Festival in Slovenia, September,2014. They played with verve and received an enthusiastic ovation. Sketches from the festival are online at the artsmitten gallery.

Štefan Banyák of the Gypsy Devils

Gypsy Devils in Maribor

The Gypsy Devils played in Maribor on Sunday night to a very enthusiastic audience. Two and a half hours of virtuosic music with no notes and hardly a pause. The first half they played alone, the second they played with the Festival Orchestra. We all left humming.

Stefan Banyak, vituosic violinist

Maribor Music Festival in September

Maribor Festival website

Wooo hooo ... the Maribor Music Festival is on again in September and I am going.
I can't wait.  It is a festival you get hooked on  because not only are the concerts wonderful the town of Maribor in Slovenia (just south of Graz in Austria) is charming as well.This will be my fifth festival!

It is a rather sudden decision and I have been spending lots of time perusing relevant websites, mulling over possible side trips.

www.bahn.de

My favourite website of all time is www.bahn.de which is the German Railways website (in German and English).At a click of a button you can find out where and when European trains/ buses leave, how long they take, how much trips cost (prices vary depending on the route and time of day) and all the special offers. You can also find out which hotels are near the station or the airport or the centre of town and book them, often without having to pay until you arrive. What's not to like?

Maribor Music Festival 2012

The Maribor Music Festival 2012 concerts so far have ranged from virtuosic Mendelssohn to electric guitar.

Australian Chamber Orchestra (ACO) performed in London on 1st September and received rave reviews. They performed the same concert in Maribor on Wednesday to an equally warm reception from the packed hall. On Thursday they played Bach and Mendelssohn with an incomparable virtuosity.

The ACO are in Maribor for the whole festival this year, playing sometimes alone and sometimes joined by the Slovenian Philharmonic.

Last night they were joined by comedian Gerry Connolly and Brian Ritchie (Violent Femmes rock band). In the second half Satu Vanska sang and it turns out she is not only a virtuoso violinist but has a lovely voice and good comic timing.

Satu plays violin

Maribor Festival Paintings

Finally!  It took a while but I now have the paintings and sketches I made at the Maribor Music Festival in September 2010 online at www.artsmitten.com

This is the Choir of London singing in the Maribor Cathedral accompanied by the Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra.

Coffee with green cushions

The sun has come out again in Maribor. Down by the river is a cafe with bright green cushions that serves excellent coffee. I went there this afternoon before rehearsals and sat thinking just how idyllic this place and this festival is.

Music, music, everywhere.

In the markets, in the concert halls ... there is music everywhere in Maribor.

Maribor Music

Finally, finally. It took a while, but now many of the drawings and paintings I made at the wonderful Maribor (Slovenia) Music Festival in September are online in a gallery at www.artsmitten.com.

The artists above are Melvin Tan and Klemen Hvala.

Maribor: Music with Atmosphere

This photo was taken at a concert in Maribor called Musical Tide. It combined surfing images and music. Images by Jon Frank and music by Elgar, Tognetti, Shostakovitch, Bach and Richard Strauss.
The last night of the festival was a sell out performance of Bach's St Johns Passion in Maribor Cathedral. Richard Tognetti played violin and conducted the chorus (from Ljubljana) and orchestra.

Maribor Music Festival, 2009

The Maribor Music Festival has been directed for the past two years by Richard Tognetti, Artistic Director and Lead Violin of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He brings together an array of internationally renowned musicians with the aim of fostering links within the music community as well as producing wonderful music.

If anyone is thinking of going to an international music festival next year, this is the one to pick. It is dynamic, programmed with intelligence and delivers performances you will never forget. There are concerts at 11am as well as 7:30 pm (sometimes one at 5pm as well.) As the days pass you think 'this is extraordinary, it can't get better than this' but it does. I intended to stay a week in Maribor but by day 3 I realised I was experiencing something very special and I changed my plans to stay the full 10 days.

The musicians above are (from left) the Norwegian Atle Sponberg, Leader of the Norwegian Radio Orchestra; Slovenian Janez Podlesek, Concert Master of the Symphony Orchestra of the Slovene Philharmonics, and Finnish Satu Vänskä , Assistant Leader of the Australian Chamber Orchestra. (I am not sure who is hidden there behind Janez.)