STICHTING WINTERAVONDEN AAN DE AMSTEL – CANNONS & MUSES

Winteravonden aan de Amstel is an intimate festival in Amsterdam around Eastern European chamber music, appreciated for its idiosyncratic programming and internationally renowned performers. The festival provides young talents with their own stage. Partly thanks to a donation from Fonds 1999, the eleventh edition ‘Cannons and Muses’ could take place (9 – 17 December 2023). This diverse edition of the festival presented 27 concerts, plus lectures and a film screening. Particularly special were the two world premieres during this festival edition: the piece Again Never Again by the Moscow composer Alexei Kurbatov and the song cycle Fiers January 2023 – A Ukrainian diary, by composer Svyatoslav Lunyov. Together, this Russian and Ukrainian symbolize exactly what Winteravonden stands for these years: music as a sign of connection, in times of great division. During this eleventh edition, musicians from Ukraine, Russia and Belarus shared the stage together. As it should.