MUSIC TO THE FITS-TH!

The Sibiu International Theatre Festival takes place between June 24 and July 3 and is the biggest celebration of the performing arts! For ten days, the city and its surroundings will host more than 3500 participants from 75 countries, and the public is expected at almost 800 events held in 80 performance venues.

 

 

BEAUTY is the theme of this edition and, certainly, it also defines the several dozen musical events held as part of FITS during the ten days of the Festival and which we invite you to read about below.

 

 

From pre-baroque and baroque music, as part of a program featuring those who inspired the great Bach, we reach rock, in Sibiu’s Large Square, alongside Holograf, Cargo and Horia Brenciu.

 

From Austria, with Mozart de Madame Pompadour, FITS will walk us on musical notes to the Land of Eternal Spring, in order to listen to the Fado of Lisbon with Mónica Jesus, but also in order to discover the Soul of Portugal with Pedro Jóia & Miguel Ramos.

 

 

From the same place comes also "Da Cruz One Man Band", the only traditional orchestra in Portugal consisting of a single musician who plays no less than 17 instruments!

 

We then travel to the sound of organ music, from France, with "Vox Celestis" and Alexandre Catau, to Bogotá, in Colombia, with the AAINJAA band who present two performances: OUKTAPÜNAWAA, a fantastic percussion show on the stage of Sibiu’s Large Square, and "AAINJAA Says Hello," a batucada rhythm greeting, straight on the Sibiu pedestrian walk.

The "Gl. Mr. Nicolae Uscoi Cadets Corps" association presents us during this edition with a manifesto for peace in the form of a performance of folk music, poetry and traditional dance, expressed by means of the soul and tireless legs of the soldiers, while the Military Music of the Sibiu Garrison, from the "Nicolae Bălcescu" Land Forces Academy, will help us give all due honour to the public.

 

"Voices of Noh Theatre" arrive in Sibiu from the Land of the Rising Sun, reviving a seven-century-old art that will reconnect us with universal emotions! We return to the old continent, in France, where Eric Tarantola comes from, a special artist who will delight us with his extraordinary instruments: a drum set made of pans, an old trombone, a clock that became a kalimba and a "chitanjo" - the combination between a guitar and a banjo. Pigswana Orchestra also comes from France, a quartet that will delight us, on Bălcescu street, with traditional cumbia rhythms, ska-style jazz hits, calypso and rock-style songs, covers of famous or old songs in a festive version.

 

 

Love and longing will be sung at FITS by Izabela Jeżowska and Marcin Grabosz from Poland, in an extraordinary recital hosted by the Hall of Mirrors at the German Democratic Forum. And also in connection to longing, but this time for the sea, we can listen to the Italians from La Cantiga de la Serena, an ensemble of musicians and researchers from Salento who initiated a project aimed at rediscovering and recreating the ancient music of the Mediterranean basin.

The FITS musical journey takes us again to South America and to Colombia, where the Latin Grammy winners Puerto Candelaria come from, then we stop for a bit in Argentina and quickly return to Europe, with Duchamp Pilot, a collaboration between Argentina, England and Scotland, but also between several musical genres such as rock, pop, new-wave and progressive rock with psychedelic and punk elements.

From Spain comes the Turmoil of Passion, to flamenco rhythms, of course: saxophone, guitar, voice and dance merge into the "flamenco machine" - an automated mechanism that raises this show to a whole other level, giving birth to a completely new and fascinating sound in Habermann Square. Germany is also not absent from the musical journey at FITS: The music of the wind will be a truly memorable concert, both through the talent and versatility of the two artists, Büdi Siebert & Stefan Charisius, and through their unique musical instruments!

 

Gospel is already a tradition in the FITS program, so it cannot be missing from this edition as well, with famous representatives of the genre, from the UK – the London International Gospel Choir, but also from Romania - Pro Gospel Timișoara.

 

 

And that's it, in Romania this is where our path stops, but not before adding to the Festival's musical program the talented violinists from the Muse Quartet, who will perform an acoustic concert at the Ursuline Church, and Marius Mihalache, his band and his Săftita - a mix of psychedelic synthesizers over a tambourine, caval, flute and other classical instruments from Romanian folklore.

Last but definitely not least, one more stop in this presentation of music to the FITS-th, indispensable at the last editions of the Festival, much-loved by the public: the Cozmeeeeești Maaarching Baaaaand! The oldest marching band in Romania (120 years) will delight us, as usual, on the Bălcescu pedestrian walk, but it will also stop, as part of FITS, in Gura Râului and Săliște. Access is free for all music lovers.