Bucharest events: New Year's Concert and launch of SoNoRo Strings Orchestra

The SoNoRo Strings Orchestra, made up of holders of the SoNoRo Interferenţe scholarship, is set to launch this month at a New Year's Concert scheduled for December 28 at the Romanian Athenaeum.

Violinist Valentin Şerban will lead the orchestra as concertmaster and will bring together several former SoNoRo Interferenţe scholars such as violinists Francesco Ionaşcu, Mateus Mai Antal and Andrei Mihail Radu, violists Alexandru Spînu, Ştefana Munteanu, Maria Colţatu and Cătălina Filipescu, cellists Ştefan Cazacu and Tudor Ioan, pianist Ioan-Dragoş Dimitriu and clarinetist Andrei Văleanu.

SoNoRo Interferenţe is the educational program of the SoNoRo International Chamber Music Festival, aimed at Romanian musicians aged between 14 and 30.

The New Year's Concert, titled Toujours Vienne, celebrates the spirit and charm of Vienna, the capital of classical music and operetta. The concert title is meant as a nod "to the musical heritage of Vienna and evokes the elegance and joie de vivre of this cultural metropolis. Through a selection of works by iconic Viennese composers, the concert aims to transport the audience to the sophisticated atmosphere of the Viennese salons, where music, dance, and culture harmoniously intertwine in a remarkable experience."

The evening's program includes works such as the Overture from The Abduction from the Seraglio, arias from the operas Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro and the Symphony Concertante for violin and viola, performed by artists Nicolas Dautricourt (violin) and Răzvan Popovici (viola). Along with the SoNoRo Strings Orchestra, conducted by Diana Ketler and Pauls Putnins, the audience will enjoy moments of improvisation, delivered by violinist Nicolas Dautricourt. The Viennese operetta will leave its mark through arias such as Gruss mir mein Wien by Emmerich Kalman and Lippen Schweigen from The Merry Widow by Franz Lehar.

(Photo: Bogdan Sonyachny | Dreamstime.com)