The 23rd edition of the Enescu and World Music Festival is happening soon in Sinaia

Sinaia, a popular mountain town about 120 km north of Bucharest, is hosting the 23rd edition of the International Summer Festival Enescu and World Music between August 9 and September 2.

The festival, created by cellist and teacher Marin Cazacu, will start at 7 pm on August 9, with an open-air concert in Sinaia's Dimitrie Ghica Park, performed by the George Enescu Philharmonic Ensemble and entitled The Immortal Johann Strauss.

The festival will feature no less than 17 concerts and recitals performed by young musicians.

Outdoor concerts will alternate with indoor ones, the main venues being the Sinaia Casino, the Sinaia Town Hall, the Sinaia Museum, Dimitrie Ghica Park, and the George Enescu Memorial House.

The symphonic concerts programmed in the Casino Hall in Sinaia will be held by the Junior Orchestra conducted by Andrei Stănculescu, followed by the Romanian Youth Orchestra conducted by Gabriel Bebeșelea and accompanied by soloist Suyoen Kim, and the Romanian Sinfonietta Orchestra with conductor and soloist Alexander Sitkovetsky.

On August 17, the winners of the George Enescu International Competition will be performing a trio recital, with Valentin Șerban on violin, Ștefan Cazacu on the cello, and Cătălin Răducanu playing the piano.

To celebrate George Enescu's birthday, on August 19, there will be a special recital at the George Enescu Memorial House, called Enescu At Home, which will take place outdoors, so that anybody might be able to listen in. The festival organizers say that this is to "remind everyone that the festival started as a continuation of the generosity that characterized George Enescu's spirit”.

Multiple other concerts will be held outdoors, including the Disney Music concert held by the Junior Orchestra conducted by Andrei Stănculescu on August 10, and the From Baroque to...Rock concert held by the Violoncellissimo ensemble on August 15.

The festival will be closed by the National Youth Orchestra of France, alongside conductor Alexandre Bloch and solo violinist Sarah Nemțanu, on September 2, at the Casino, with a program consisting of Hector Berlioz, Édouard Lalo, Lili Boulanger, and Maurice Ravel.

Marin Cazacu, the initiator of the festival and director of the George Enescu Philharmonic, declared before the event: "The International Festival Enescu and World Music has, in the last 23 years, become the most important platform for the promotion and consecration of the best young musicians in the country. The National Youth Orchestras of Romania train and develop in Sinaia, a place of inspiration and imagination for any artist, a town that breathes not only the fresh mountain air but also the effervescent cultural atmosphere that the great composer George Enescu imprinted on the town."