Greeting of the founder and Artistic Director of Piano Summer
Ten years of Piano Summer and the journey continues…
“Don’t stop the music!” – that is our motto and also our dearest wish in these times, times when we need culture more than ever. Our need and desire to come together, build bridges and experience culture together will hopefully be fulfilled in the years to come.
We bring together artists and audiences from around the world and facilitate vibrant cultural exchange through our concert series, artist-in-residence programs, and various opportunities to educate and nurture young talent.
Piano Summer is the quintessential cultural festival in Southern Europe – a project that has attracted more than 18,000 visitors since its inception in 2014. What was once a local festival in Serbia is now gradually becoming a predominantly European cultural network that has so far attracted countries such as Germany, Serbia, Italy, Croatia, Portugal and Turkey as hosts or partners.
Back in the distant 2014 when we initiated our project we could not have dreamed where the future would take us. This year we will take you on an exciting musical journey full of exciting content.
The Italian edition of the festival will take place in the beautiful Salento region. We are proud to host sites such as Lecce, Cavallino, Manduria, Matino, Nardo and Depressa to delight our guests with many facets of the region and its cultural heritage.
In addition to concerts with many renowned artists, the program also includes an international summer academy. There will also be concerts by young up-and-coming artists from Italy and a presentation of the region in Germany.
It is our desire to bring a breath of fresh air to the cultural landscape. Our festival should be a festival that opens up to established and young artists, that dares to do something new, off the beaten track of the culture industry, a project that welcomes everyone who is united by a love of music.
Today more than ever, Europe must be more than just lip service – it must be lived! As a European cultural platform, it is important for us to open a window to the world. The times we live in demand solutions to the challenges of the future. We can only find these in political and cultural exchange, by getting to know each other and learning from each other.
At this point I would like to thank all friends of the festival, institutions and numerous sponsors who help us to keep this window open and to continue on this path.
And last but not least, we are happy to bring people together again after a long period of isolation and enjoy the beautiful summer nights in Salento!
Zoran Imširović
Founder & Artistic Director
Greeting of the Organizational Director of Piano Summer Salento
In this 2023 edition of the PIANO SUMMER Festival I am very happy and honored to be part of a team of excellence and strongly inspired by a visionary idea of music, understood as a pole of cultural attraction, capable of enhancing and restoring poetic sense and evocative intensity to places and architectural and landscape monuments of cities and territories, which in themselves represent important tourist destinations.
This is the case for our Salento, which has been chosen as the ideal setting for the events of the Festival, which in this summer 2023 will see a series of concerts with excellent artists, whose piano art will inspire and excite us.
From the very beginning, the PIANO SUMMER Festival has been synonymous with cultural plurality, cross-border cooperation and the dissemination of knowledge of piano music, through innovative concert programs, with well-known artists, from all over the world, but also through the promotion of young talents in Germany, Serbia, Italy and all European countries, involved in the precious network of artistic relationships created and woven over the years by the creators and founders of the Festival.
It is precisely them that I would like to thank, the President of the Festival, Katrin Brökelman and the Artistic Director, Zoran Imširović, together with the entire organizational team. A special thanks to our supporters and partners, and last but not least to the artists who made this interesting musical event possible for the Salento summer 2023.
I wish all the participants and guests who want to share the exciting experience of the Festival with us, to be able to fully experience unforgettable moments with the music of the PIANO SUMMER Festival 2023
Looking forward to you!
Mariacarla De Giorgi
Festival Director Piano Summer Salento