CURENT INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL EVENT

The Ljubljana Festival was born on 22 May 1952. Over the last 50 years on average some 30 concerts per year have been held, resulting in the present total of some 1,600 events which includes all the genres from music to dance and theatre.

Festival Ljubljana has been a member of the European Association of Festivals for more than twenty years. The Ljubljana Summer Festival is also a member of the International Society for the Performing Arts (ISPA) based in New York.

Although the common theme of the festival remains music performed by soloists and the largest philharmonic orchestras of world renown, its programme also features a range of shows from opera, ballet, theatre, folk and pantomime.

Festival is tightly connected to Križanke. The location is in the city centre, its name deriving from the Holy Order of the Knights of the Cross because the site formed part of their estate even at the beginning of the 13th century. The church and monastery complex also originate from that time. Krizanke Church, as we can see today, has been completely rebuilt to honour Mary Our Saviour in the period 1714-18. It belongs to the Palladian style of Venetian Baroque and represents a precious monument for Ljubljana, which is protected by UNESCO. The Knights' Hall in Krizanke, where cultural events are now held, also originated during the Baroque era.

In the fifties, the reconstruction works of Krizanke were entrusted to the famous Slovene architect Jože Plečnik, which is why it is referred to today as Plečnik's Križanke. His plans were completed in the seventies when the summer theatre acquired its present appearance and where it is pleasant to listen to exquisite sounds in the hot summer evenings. The summer theatre has 1,400 seats and features a mobile roof erected in the sixties, unique with its 2,000 m2 surface area that permits concerts to be held without interruption even during a rainfall.

Apart from the summer auditorium, the Baroque Church of the Knights of the Cross and Knights' Hall, both with 120 seats, the Krizanke also features the magical Hell Yard, as architect Plečnik termed it. Its special quality radiates with 166 lights arranged along the walls in the form of a necklace, whose light creates the illusion of entering a starry summer sky. The anteroom with 400 seats serves primarily for theatre productions, although concerts, art exhibitions and other events are held there too.

Among other guests, American musicians will participate at this year's 47th International Summer Festival. The American conductor Robert Olson will conduct the German chamber orchestra from Frankfurt on July 19, and the Alaria Chamber Ensemble from New York will perform on August 13.

The following American artists as well have appeared at recent festivals: New York's Camerata Virtuosi chamber orchestra, mezzo-soprano Alice Baker, pianist Marioara Trifan, composer George Crumb, and violinist Mark Kaplan.

More information: http://www.festival-lj.si