SoNoRo 20: Romanian chamber music festival celebrates anniversary with international tour

Chamber music festival SoNoRo is celebrating its 20th anniversary with an international tour that sees the RARO - SoNoRo ensemble perform in Europe and the US.

The tour, which started in Buenos Aires, will stop for three the concerts in Belgium beginning this week. Then, it will continue in Munich, Vienna, Berlin, Budapest, Madrid, and Seville. A final concert of the tour is scheduled to take place at Carnegie Hall in New York.

Between April 28 and May 4, RARO – SoNoRo will perform in Belgium, also celebrating 145 years of bilateral diplomatic relations between Romania and the host country.

The concerts will take place in Ghent (MIRY Concertzaal - April 28), Brussels (Museum of Musical Instruments in Brussels - April 30), and Antwerp (De Singel/ Blue Hall - May 4).

The concerts will be delivered by Răzvan Popovici (viola), Diana Ketler (piano), Justus Grimm (cello), Erik Schumann (violin), and Aylen Pritchin (violin). At the Antwerp concert, organized in collaboration with the Conservatory of Antwerp, they will be joined by students Gustavo Kujundzic, João Sá, Alberto Saldaña Lopez, Ștefana Munteanu, Myriam Baumann, Roser Ramos and Aude Van De Keere.

The RARO - SoNoRo ensemble, founded in 2004, "combines the deep and authentic European tradition of chamber music with an innovative approach." The group has performed at venues such as Carnegie Hall in New York, Kennedy Center in Washington, Wigmore Hall in London, and Konzerthaus in Vienna, as well as in Athens, Istanbul, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, and Sofia. The ensemble's activity includes multimedia performances in collaboration with video artists, improvisations with DJs, and literary-musical projects.

The RARO ensemble founded several musical events: SoNoRo - International Chamber Music Festival Romania, Chiemgauer Musikfrühling Festival - Germany, SoNoRo Arezzo, Kobe International Music Festival, and Pèlerinages. The leader of the ensemble is the violist Răzvan Popovici. He has performed as a soloist at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, and the Théâtre-des-Champs-Elysées in Paris. He has collaborated with Konstantin Lifschitz, Natalia Gutman, Daishin Kashimoto, Mihaela Ursuleasa, and Gilles Apap. He was a guest violist of the Essen Philharmonic, the Munich, Cologne and Kobe chamber orchestras, and the Salzburg Chamber Philharmonic.

The Romanian Cultural Institute is a partner of the SoNoRo cultural platform, which includes the SoNoRo Festival, SoNoRo Interferențe, the scholarship and workshop program for young musicians, SoNoRo On Tour, SoNoRo Arezzo, SoNoRo Conac, the series of summer concerts in heritage buildings in Romania, and SoNoRo Musikland, a festival dedicated to the heritage and traditions of Transylvania.