A global stage now opening for Romania: diversity focus at Medici.tv

How do you bring more people to the concert hall? Medici.tv had an answer when it did its first broadcast in 2007. Almost ten years on, the platform streaming classical music events carries forward with its mission of showcasing a diverse classical music scene and bringing it within the reach of a wider audience.

This year’s edition of the George Enescu Competition was the first one to be streamed on Medici.tv, the online platform broadcasting classical music events from around the world. The musicians performing in Bucharest were under expanded spotlight as the classical music competition established in 1958 joined the platform’s portfolio of events covering the up-and-coming generation, such as the Tchaikovsky Competition or the Chopin Competition. Hervé Boissière (pictured), founder and managing director of Medici.tv, says the platform is very keen on presenting music competitions in part from the desire to respect and reflect the diversity of classical music and because such events are an opportunity to present new talent. Boissière, who was in Bucharest at the opening of the Enescu Competition this year, quotes the example of pianists Yuja Wang or Daniil Trifonov, whose performances Medici.tv first recorded at the 2007 Verbier Festival, where it did its initial broadcast. “We are very proud when we can say we were there the first time an artist won the prize or gave a first concert at a festival,” he says. The streaming of the Enescu Competition fits along the same line. “We started to discuss about the festival two years ago and when I saw the lineup and the programing I said “My God, there is fantastic stuff here.” And we love to be not only in New York, Tokyo, London, so we said why not start a more diversified presence,” Boissière explains. He mentions Sebastian Androne’s Tektonum, the winning piece of the Enescu Competition composition section in 2014, to support the case for showing a diverse range of performances and repertoire. The piece was performed for the first time at the opening concert of this year’s event. “It is great to show, to imagine that our community, 99 percent of our audience never heard it,” he says, arguing in favor of exploring novel content. “Of course it is important to reflect and to combine the biggest names but never forget new talent, new repertoire, competitions, chamber music, especially because those programs are never filmed for television now.” And where popularity or ratings take precedence, he says Medici is interested in showing content that is little-known. “We love to go to not so popular repertoire or artists.”