NEWS
25th edition - September 2020 in Waterloo/Brussels
Coronavirus
The FESTIVAL MOZART celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2020.
The 25th "Festival Mozart" was supposed to be held in Belgium from September 14 until 20, 2020
The Festival being organized on a principle of residence in which 15 to 20 musicians comes from various European and other countries, staying in Waterloo, working and performing together everyday - mornings, afternoons and evenings - for about 10 days, it does not fit with the very strict and necessary Pandemic security health directories.
Meanwhile, International transportations are still very much affected and it is still unclear what will be the traveling situation and the sanitary evolution of the coronavirus, and this for the next few months.
Therefore, the only possible option was to plan the next festival in 2021.
Festival Mozart in Japan - 2020
The Festival Mozart was held for the first time in Japan, March 2020.
The first concert has been given in the wonderful concert hall of the Yokosuka Art Center.
Unfortunately, the following concerts to be held in Nagakute Cultural Center had to be cancelled due to the coronavirus.
The Festival Mozart will be back in Japan in 2022.
Festival Mozart in Waterloo - 2021
Sept 14-20-2021, the Festival Mozart will be back in Belgium.
Info will be posted mid-2021.
Looking back at the 2019 edition in Waterloo/Brussels
For the 24th edition, the Festival Mozart was held at the Saint-Paul Church in Waterloo, at the Saint-Pierre Church in Glabais for the 21st time in collaboration with 'Musique à Glabais', but also for the first time in the charming hall of the Jewish Museum of Belgium in Brussels.
Many musicians performed for the very first time: German violinist Christoph Schickedanz, Serbian cellist Maja Bogdanovic and Romanian pianist Henri Bonami. The festival will also welcomed for the first time the following musicians established in Belgium: violists Tony Nys and Marc Sabbah and the mezzo Clotilde van Dieren. Finally, some musicians already present in the past joined the team: the Israeli violist Ron Ephrat, the pianist Dalia Ouziel, founder of the Mozart Festival, and the French cellist Michel Strauss.
Added to this, two young musicians took part, from the Young Artists Program: Tunisian violinist Nidhal Jebali who made his first appearance in the festival, and Japanese violinist Chihiro Yamamoto, who already came in 2016.
It is a very Germanic color that was given to concert programs this year, with the presence of Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss, the less known Richard Franck, Albert Dietrich, as well as Clara Schumann whom we are celebrating this year the 200 years of her birth. A Jewish and Slavic touch will added some other colors to the Thursday and Saturday concerts, all surrounded by Mozart which remains, as always be, the thread of the Mozart Festival.
Daniel Rubenstein,
Artistic Director