The artistic manager and co-ordinator of the entire festival (and its previous five editions) is Jan Jakub Bokun – a Wroclaw clarinetist who is active both as a soloist and as the conductor of the Inter>Camerata Orchestra created by him. In the first place, however, Bokun is an active animator of the Wroclaw music scene, and the Clarimania Festival has become his pet occupation.
Clarinetist Mariano Rey from Argentina
A festival with a wide scope of use
The event that starts on Wednesday the 15th of April and will last till the 18th of April combines not only:
- concerts (entrance to all of them is free!), but also
- a promotion of young Polish clarinetists, who (of which we do not even know) win top world awards, and
- experts’ lectures and master classes (an invaluable opportunity to learn really much from world-class soloists).
Stars with a full trunk
Imagine that you can listen to great piano stars: Martha Argerich, Krystian Zimerman and Rafał Blechacz during one festival. And now replace the piano with the clarinet and add the names of musicians without whom the world of music (not only the clarinet) would be much poorer. These are: France’s Philippe Cuper, a soloist of the Paris Opera Orchestra, Argentina’s Mariano Rey (he plays in the Teatro Colon Orchestra), Czech Irvin Venyš and Hungary’s Bence Szepesi (Jan Jakub Bokun assures that he will bring not only a clarinet, but also a full trunk of interesting wind instruments).
Bence Szepesi will play not only the clarinet, but also many wind instruments
However, not only experienced artists, but also those who are only polishing their musical skills will perform at the festival. Here I mean six young musicians (three secondary school graduates and three higher education students) from Częstochowa, Wroclaw, Warszawa and Zielona Góra. The artistic director praises Agata Piątek, a secondary school student from Częstochowa, who has already won, among others, a prestigious clarinet competition in New York. ‘This is the greatest talent I’ve ever met during my teaching career,’ admits Jan Jakub Bokun.
What’s worth seeing at Clarimania
To those who are not familiar with clarinet music, we recommend an inauguration concert on Wednesday the 15th of April at 7:00 p.m. in the Wroclaw Philharmonic Hall – the best of clarinet music. There will be an absolute evergreen – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major (a note for greenhorns: you know it from ‘Out of Africa’, because Robert Redford ‘accosted’ monkeys by means of it), which will be played by Phillippe Cuper. Interestingly enough, this classical music hit has never been performed at the festival! ‘Maybe we were afraid that Mozart’s work was overplayed,’ admits the artistic director of Clarimania. Cuper will be accompanied by the Inter>CAMERATA Orchestra conducted by Bokun. There will also be something for Astor Piazzolli’s fans: Concierto para Quinteto for soprano saxophone (to be played by Bence Szepesi) and strings, and Aaron Copland’s Concerto for clarinet (with Irvin Venyš as soloist), strings, harp and piano.
Irvin Venyš will be one of the stars of Clarimania
A new attraction of the festival will be the Czech day (Friday the 17th of April), when invited Czech musicians will play on one stage of the Karol Szymanowski Music School of General Education (in the new building at ul. Piłsudskiego). Entrance is free.
The detailed program of each concert is available here. You can also check it on the Clarimania website.
Entrance to all events of the 6th Clarimania Festival is free!
