ReMusica Festival - International Music Festival

Contact person:
Donika Rudi, artistic director
donika@remusicafestival.com

ReMusica Festival is one of Kosovo's main cultural pillars in music and education. Through its many activities, it offers a unique music programme that encompasses pieces from different eras of classical music.

ReMusica was founded in the spring of 2002 and it developed out of the activities of the «Center for New Music», an institution formed with Vanessa Redgrave's encouragement and Philip Glass's support immediately after the war in Kosovo. Its primary mission was to promote contemporary music and innovative performance through different genres of the 20th century.

In a newly born country like Kosovo, ReMusica has had a profound impact on music lovers and others, which later helped realise the need to broaden its programme outreach. From the fifth edition, ReMusica enriched its physiognomy by introducing works of previous musical eras, including Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, and Romantic, which provided substantive and logical parallels to the contemporary music present on display during the festival.

A distinctive feature of ReMusica is ensuring the affirmation of local composers. All artists and ensembles coming from abroad include in their programmes works by Kosovar/ Albanian composers. With this emphasis on local creations, composers can present their pieces in a prestigious and competitive scene, allowing them to demonstrate their talent and review the artistic level of their work. Around 500 works of Albanian composers from Kosovo, Albania and North Macedonia have been presented in previous editions of the festival - a large percentage of which were commissioned by the festival!

Along with marking the anniversaries of older generation composers, another pillar of the festival’s operating structure is to introduce people to contemporary creativity. ReMusica believes the composers of today and their work need to be given more space.

Over the years, ReMusica has widened its cultural activities beyond promoting local and international artists, to include professional capacity building, paid internships focusing on young women engaged in the festival’s production; ReMusica Junior - a programme for children; discussions, career development, Meet the artist – ReMusica Festival acts as a bridge between European and world music institution actors and local artists. For this activity, ReMusica invites representatives of some of the most important music institutions to meet local artists and having the chance to see and hear them perform, music education and innovation, masterclasses and workshops, including the collaboration with the University of Prishtina, inter-sectoral cooperation , focus on specific countries with cultural cooperation and promotion, awareness raising through music, etc.

As part of its commitment to work with internationally acclaimed artists and ensembles, ReMusica has established co-operative relations with significant associations and festivals worldwide. Some of the renowned artists and ensembles hosted by ReMusica include: Marc Bouchkov, Petrit Çeku (Croatia Kosovo), Pierre Fouchenneret (France), Aki Takahashi (Japan), Arcis Saxophone Quartet (Germany), Elbenita Kajtazi (Kosovo/Germany),Jonian Ilias Kadesha (Albania Germany), ProModern, vocal sextet ensemble (Poland), Mondriaan Quartet (Netherlands), Thomas Leleu (France), Ko Matsushita and Japanese Choir (Japan), KROUMATA percussion ensemble (Sweden), Zagrebacki Solisti – Soloist of Zagreb, Jérémy Jouve (France), Premysl Vojta, Stockholm Saxofone Quartet (Sweden), Choir “Pravoslavie” (Bulgaria), Trio Fibonacci (Canada), Marcel Worms (Netherlands), Kifu Mitsuhashi & Nanae Yoshimura (Japan), Trio Elogio (Croatia), String Quartet of Bulgarian Philharmonic (Bulgaria), Ian Pace (Great Britain), Ronnita Nicole Miller (USA Germany), Andreas Lewin Richter (Spain), Guo Gan (China), Syrene Saxophone Quartet, Dominique De Williencourt (france), Frederic Belli ( Germany), Annette Vande Gorne (Belgium), Ebonit Saxophone Quartet (Netherlands), Rafael Andia (France), Michael Finnisy (Great Britain) Ophelié Gaillard (France), Florent Héau (France) etc.

ReMusica Festival is organized by Kosovar Center for New Music (KCNM) member of ECPNM (European Conference of Promoters of New Music) and part of EFFE (Europe for Festivals, Festivals for Europe)