Serbia: Guitar Art Festival Brings Top Names to Belgrade

The celebrated guitar quartet Los Romero will open the festival at the Kolarac Foundation Hall on Tuesday night. They will go on to perform with the soprano quartet DIV4S and conductor Marcello Rota in the Sava Centar on Thursday.

Mariza, Edin Karamazov, Egberto & Alexandre Gismonti, Aniello Desiderio, and Stefan Milekovic will also perform at concerts at the Kolarac Foundation Hall and Sava Centar during the festival, which runs until February 13.

One of the most-anticipated concerts will be a peformance on Friday by Portugal's fado diva Mariza, who is very popular among the Belgrade audience. Her singing will be acommpanied by a string section that will play against the backdrop of a set design by renowed Canadian architect Frank Gehry.

Acclaimed lutenist Edin Karamazov will join Serbian violin virtuoso Stefan Milenkovic on Wednesday night on a journey through world music, from Piazzolla, via Bela Bartok to Ravi Shankar.

The event will include guitar competitions for six different age groups, and 100 artists from 20 countries will compete. Leading guitarists and scholars will also hold 27 master classes during the week-long festival.