NEWS
25th edition - September 2020 in Waterloo/Brussels
Coronavirus
The 25th Festival Mozart was suppose be held in Belgium, from Sept 4-13.
Unfortunately, the specific organisation of the Festival Mozart, with musicians travelling from all Europe, staying in residence to work together during 10 days in Waterloo, is incompatible with the Covid-19.
It is still unclear how will be the health and the international transport situation at the beginning of September. The festival Mozart doesn't want to take any risk for its musicians on their way to Belgium or during their stay, nor for its audience, and therefore is cancelled.
However a 1 day event might be held at the end of 2020 to celebrate its 25th anniversary. Info will be posted by the beginning of the Summer.
Festival Mozart in 2021 - Belgium & Japan
In 2021, the Festival Mozart will return to Japan for a festival to be held late March-April 2021.
Sept 3-12, the Festival Mozart will be back in Belgium with a full edition.
Info will be posted soon.
Looking back at the 2020 edition in Japan
In March 2020, the Festival Mozart was going to give its first festival in Japan.
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 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