RadiRo, the Radio Orchestras Festival

Bucharest will soon be hosting a unique event in Europe, the RadiRo International Radio Orchestras Festival

România Internațional, 26.09.2018, 12:30

Classical music lovers are invited to Bucharest between November 18th and 25th, for RadiRo, the only festival in Europe and in the world devoted to radio orchestras. Currently in its 4th year, the event showcases the extraordinary diversity of repertoire, versatility and artistic excellence of radio orchestras.

Produced and organised by Radio Romania, RadiRo will have 2 sections: symphonic concerts hosted by the Radio Hall and, for the first time this year, jazz concerts, at the National Art Museum.

Held every 2 years, alternating with the George Enescu Festival, RadiRo has managed, ever since its first edition in 2012, to bring to Bucharest top-level orchestras of public broadcasters in Europe and Asia. Taking part in this edition will be, among others, the BBC Philharmonic from the UK, the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra (Germany), the RTE National Symphony Orchestra (Ireland), Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana (Switzerland), alongside the host of the event, the National Radio Orchestra of Romania. The jazz concerts will be given by public radio big bands from Denmark, Croatia and, of course, Romania.

The star of this series will be without doubt Aura Urziceanu, one of the most accomplished artists in Romania, which easily approaches any music genre, and above all her speciality, jazz. Currently living in Canada, she will return to her home country especially to perform in RadiRo jointly with the Radio Romania Big Band. The guests of honour also include famous conductors, like Vladimir Ashkenazy, as well as internationally acclaimed soloists like the pianist Mihai Ritivoiu, a winner of the George Enescu International Competition, and cellist Andrei Ionita, winner of the Tchaikovsky International Competition in Moscow.

According to the organisers, there will be 8 symphonic concerts with an outstanding and extremely varied programme, including works by Mozart, Ravel, and Tchaikovsky.

With this edition of the Festival, Radio Romania also celebrates the 2 major events this year, the 90th anniversary of the Romanian public radio and the Centennial of the Great Union of December 1, 1918. All the concerts in the festival will be broadcast live by Radio Romania, recorded and subsequently re-broadcast by the Romanian Television and also aired by all the radio and television stations affiliated to the European Broadcasting Union.

(translated by Ana Maria Popescu)