Our intensive preparations for the Belgrade Philharmonic’s New Year’s concerts with conductor Daniel Raiskin at Kolarac Hall on December 24 and 25 have encountered some unexpected twists and turns that have become commonplace all over the world. Our announced guest clarinetist Kari Kriikku had to cancel his Belgrade appearance due to illness, but we have found some other attractive solutions for our Music Bazaar.

In addition to offering a variety of melodies from different parts of the world, our Music Bazaar will present the multi-talented musicians of the Belgrade Philharmonic. Exclusively for this occasion, Kari Kriikku has donated several songs to the Belgrade Philharmonic, which will be performed by our own first clarinetist Veljko Klenkovski. Another young colleague, the extremely talented percussionist Miloš Branisavljević, has written an attractive composition Bis (Encore), performed in an unrealistically fast time, in which our philharmonic percussionists, known for their crazy “stunts,” will show all their “acrobatic” skills. The program will also include works by violist Konstantin Blagojević, another super-talented Belgrade Philharmonic musician, who, in addition to playing, also writes and arranges music.

Our New Year’s concert program always holds traditional surprises for our patient audience. This time it has been revealed that our Music Bazaar will also feature the famous and popular Danzón by Arturo Márquez, the absolute winner of the Belgrade Philharmonic’s first open-air concert, when this composition received almost 6 million votes for the program that the orchestra performed on that occasion.