Highlights of MIDEM Classical 2009

HIGHLIGHTS OF MIDEM CLASSICAL 2009

Paris, 5 December 2008 ’Äì MIDEM Classical will put the spotlight on musical encounters of all shapes and sizes at the Palais des Festivals in Cannes from 18-21 January 2009. This wide-ranging event is designed to help professionals understand how the market is moving and allow them to discover a generation of young artists alongside major international performers, notably singers.

MIDEM Classical 2009 will pay homage to celebrated Italian tenor Carlo Bergonzi, internationally renowned for his phenomenal career, which includes starring alongside Maria Callas and Herbert von Karajan and his famous performances of the works of Verdi. A screening of previously-unseen images from his career and a press conference with the singer will take place on Tuesday 20 January from 11.30am-1.00pm in auditorium K, at the Palais des Festivals.

In a world first to celebrate the 75th birthday of Polish composer and conductor Krzysztof Penderecki, MIDEM Classical will be screening the concert version of Seven Gates of Jerusalem on 18 January 2009 from 6.30-7.30pm in Auditoriums I and J. This work will be accompanied by animations by Tomek Baginski, who achieved an Oscar nomination for his short film The Cathedral in 2002. Krzysztof Penderecki, Tomek Baginski and many other artists will be present at the event.

MIDEM Classical will be continuing its mission to discover new young talent by organising the third Nuit d'Opˆ©ra on Monday 19 January in the Debussy Auditorium at 8pm. The special guest at the event will be Cuban-American soprano Eglise Gutiˆ©rrez, who will shortly perform in Madrid alongside Juan Diego Florez and at London's Covent Garden in three new productions. She will be accompanied by young singers from Marseille's classical singing training centre CNIPAL, including French soprano Sophie Desmars, Chinese mezzo Ai Wu, South Korean tenor Ji Hyun Kim, French baritone Ronan Debois and the Orchestre Rˆ©gional de Cannes Provence-Alpes-Cˆ¥te d'Azur directed by Philippe Bender. The programme contains a wide range of arias, ensembles and orchestral extracts from Vivaldi to Reynaldo Hahn and from Haydn to Puccini.

The fifth edition of the MIDEM Classical Awards will take place on Tuesday 20 January 2009 at 8pm in the Debussy Auditorium. The ceremony crowns the best recordings and classical artists of 2008. During the event, Carlo Bergonzi will receive a special MIDEM prize in recognition of his career. It is hard to imagine a more enchanting timbre than that of French counter-tenor Philippe Jaroussky voted "Singer of the Year", or of the extraordinary talent of violinist Julia Fischer, "Instrumental Artist of the Year". German tenor Jonas Kaufmann will also attend as a special guest, invited to present the trophy to Carlo Bergonzi and to present his latest DVD, Carmen, published by Decca in October 2008. Finally, the Sony Classical label will be presented with the "Label of the Year" award. The winners at the MIDEM Classical Awards 2009 will be announced at a press conference on Sunday 18 January at 5pm on the MIDEM Classical Awards stand, located at Riviera R38.03.

Once again, several premieres and conferences will be hosted by IMZ, the Vienna-based organization that specialises in music and dance press promotion. Through these events, IMZ is promoting some 390 productions involving classical music, jazz, world music and dance programs. Within this framework, Jonas Kaufmann will be making a special presentation of the film "Jonas Kaufmann, A Perfectly Normal Hero" (Clasart Classic) on Tuesday 20 January 2009, Auditorium I and J, between 5.30-6.30pm.

Lastly, five conferences will help us better understand the fields of classical music and jazz, with selected participants including Nicholas Payne, Director of Opˆ©ra Europa and Alexander Pereira, Director of the Zurich Opera.

For more information on MIDEM Classical & Jazz:

http://www.midem.com/classical