Piano Nights taken to 'another dimension'

The 7th Piano Nights Festival will take place in Moldova in the period from June 21 to July 8, and this year it will be taken to a “regional dimension” as a concert will be held for the first time in a location outside of Moldova – in the Ukrainian coastal city of Odessa, Info-Prim Neo reports. “This new dimension and the new image adopted by (the Festival) will enhance its attractiveness and fame, promoting at the same time the image of Moldova internationally”, said the French Alliance, the Festival's traditional organizer, in a press release on Wednesday. This year the Festival will be directed by French conductor Didier Talpain and Michel Bourdoncle, pianist and piano teacher at the Aix-en-Provence Conservatory, and also director of the Piano Nights Festival in Aix-en-Provence. The Organ Hall in Chisinau will host 4 concerts. This year, too, a Piano Nights performance will be given in Tiraspol. Michel Bourdoncle, Cyril Huve, Evgeny Mihailov, Evelina Pitti, Sofia Gulbadamova, Marie Vermeulin, Antoine de Grolee and other internationally renowned pianists will perform alongside Moldovan musicians, accompanied by the National Chamber Orchestra and the Symphonic Orchestra based in Tiraspol and the Odessa Philharmonic. The variety of the program, the fame of the invited musicians and the beauty of the music to be played promise to make this Festival the major event of classic music of the year, the organizers said. In 2008 more than 3,000 spectators attended the 5 concerts held in Chisinau, Balti and Tiraspol. The event is organized by the French Embassy and the French Alliance in Moldova, in partnership with Cultures France, TV5Monde, Lafarge, Mobiasbanca Groupe Société Générale and Orange etc.