Saturday, September 21
Croatian National Theatre in Varaždin, Great Concert Hall, 8.00 p.m.
The Concert of the Patrons Club of the Varaždin Baroque Evenings
Varaždin Chamber Orchestra
Carlos Damas, violin and artistic leadership
Carlos Seixas
Symphony for strings in B flat major
Antonio Vivaldi
Concerto for violin and orchestra No 12 in E major Op.3, RV 265
Allegro
Largo
Allegro
Georg Philipp Telemann
Concerto for violin and orchestra in G major, TWV 51:G4
Vivace
Largo
Allegro
Amando Ivančić
Symphony no. 8 in G major
Allegro
Andante
Presto
Carlos Damas is considered the most significant Portuguese violinist of today and one of the most prominent Portuguese musicians of his generation. His extensive discography for labels such as Dux, Brilliant Classics, Naxos, and Et’Cetera attests to his brilliant concert career, which spans venues across Europe, North America, and Asia. Music critics from magazines like The Strad and Gramophone often compare him to masters such as Gidon Kremer and Henryk Szeryng. His repertoire is broad, encompassing works from the 18th to the 21st century, and he is particularly known for premiering works by Portuguese composers. He is also recognized as a diplomat-violinist who promotes multiculturalism and peace through music, mainly due to the projects he developed in collaboration with UNESCO and the Melody Dialogue association. Carlos Damas began learning the violin at the age of three at the Conservatory in his hometown of Coimbra. He continued at the School of Music and Ballet Linda-a-Velha in Lisbon, and completed his violin studies at the Paris Conservatory under the guidance of Yehudi Menuhin, as well as with Jacqueline Lefèvre and Ivry Gitlis. Alongside his concert activities, Carlos Damas holds a PhD in music psychology and music pedagogy and is a violin professor at the University of Évora. He plays a violin by Giovanni Battista Gabrielli, the "ex-Pat Isham," built around 1767.
The Varaždin Chamber Orchestra continues the longstanding tradition of chamber and orchestral music in Varaždin, especially strong in the 1950s and 1960s. The main activity of the orchestra is a cycle of five concerts in the season held in the Concert Hall of the Croatian National Theater in Varaždin. Additionally, the Orchestra regularly participates in the Varaždin Baroque Evenings and performs throughout Croatia, including in Zagreb, Dubrovnik, Split, Zadar, Opatija, Osijek, Karlovac, Čakovec, and has also performed in Slovenia, Germany, Austria and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Although often performing without a conductor, striving primarily for quality, the orchestra occasionally collaborates with conductors – esteemed artists: Pavle Dešpalj, Milan Horvat, Kazushi Ono, Marko Letonja, Vjekoslav Šutej, Uroš Lajovic, Vladimir Kranjčević, Mladen Tarbuk, Ivo Lipanović, Zoran Juranić, Ivan Repušić etc. The orchestra has been joined by distinguished instrumentalists and singers as soloists, including Ruža Pospiš- Baldani, Dubravka Tomšič-Srebotnjak, Dunja Vejzović, Višnja Mažuran, Monika Leskovar, Karmen Pečar, Renata Pokupić, Radovan Vlatković, David Geringas, Valter Dešpalj, Dora Schwarzberg, Branimir Slokar, Peter Soave, Stanko Arnold, Ištvan Römer, Lovro Pogorelić, Božo Paradžik, Inva Mula etc. With two concertmasters (Dunja Bontek and Ivana Penić Defar), the orchestra often collaborates with guest concertmasters, including Leon Spierer, Catherine Mackintosh, Taras Pecheny, Tamara Smirnova, Aleksandar Ivić, Boro Martinić, Mario Korunić, Latica Honda-Rosenberg, Stefan Milenkovich. The orchestra is the recipient of several prestigious awards.