Dear Public,

This edition of KIEMF is again crowded with stars!

This year’s festival will be opened by the fantastic tenor Reinoud van Mechelen and baroque flute player Anna Besson with their ensemble A Nocte Temporis, performing the most beautiful pieces by Johann Sebastian Bach for tenor, flute and continuo. Host ensemble Canto Fiorito with mezzo-soprano Renata Dubinskaite will perform an exquisite program of Roman music from the beginning of the 17th century. Following, the angelical voice of Julie Roset, the winner of this year’s Metropolitan Opera’s Laffont Competition, will be heard for the first time in Lithuania, in a recital of English, German, French and Italian sacred music.

At the second part of the festival, Les Cornets Noirs, one of the world references of its kind is coming again to Kretinga, led by the cornetto player Frithjof Smith, this time to perform 17th century polychoral Venetian instrumental music for 4 cornetti, 6 sackbuts and of course the emblematic organ of Kretinga’s church, in an extraordinary reunion of some of the finest musicians of this field. The organ recital of this year will be performed by the great Jean-Marc Aymes, with a program dedicated to the three most dominant Italian styles of early seicento: Venice, Rome and Naples. And to conclude this year’s edition, the outstanding Ryo Terakado will charm us with his virtuosity in a baroque violin recital, performing Austrian and North German music from the late 17th century.

Once again, we are honored to host this constellation of such bright stars and proud to offer these concerts with free entrance to the Lithuanian public.

Rodrigo Calveyra

Artistic director of International Kretinga Early Music Festival