The upcoming Eilat Chamber Music Festival (February 6th to 9th) promises four days of high-quality performance

Russian violinist/countertenor/conductor Dmitry Sinkovsky (Marco Regrave)

On January 17th 2019, the Dan Hotel Tel Aviv hosted a press conference on the upcoming Eilat Chamber Music Festival (February 6th-9th) Gilli Alon-Bitton (Carousel Artists Management and PR) opened the meeting, showing a few short film clips - enough to whet one’s appetite for four days of good music in the sunny winter city.  First to address us was Yossi Chen of the Eilat Tourism Corporation. He talked about developments in Eilat - the new Ilan & Assaf Ramon Airport, improvements made to the promenade, about a campus for Law and Architecture studies, the planned international sport campus and the fact that the New York Times has graded Eilat as the sixth best vacationing resort in the world! This year, the Eilat Chamber Music Festival, one of the country’s finest, will be part of Eilat’s 70th anniversary celebrations. Since taking on the festival, the Dan Eilat Hotel, he added, has been offering hospitality of the highest standard!

 

Mr. Ronen Nissenbaum, the Dan Hotels' new President and CEO, will be celebrating his second Eilat Chamber Music Festival. With the Dan Hotels engaging in many cultural events, he is proud they are hosts of the “Partnership with Art” project. He promises guests many good surprises and much enjoyment - fine hospitality and good food, and reminded those present of the various accommodation-concert packages offered by the Dan Eilat for the festival. He concluded by mentioning Leonid Rozenberg’s experience and familiarity with Eilat.

 

Leonid Rozenberg, the Eilat Chamber Music Festival’s founder and musical director, spoke of the city’s long-standing support of the festival, referring to it as a mix of culture and vacation and singling out the Dan Hotels as “our family”, with outstanding hospitality offered by Dan Eilat Hotel’s manager Mr. Lior Mucznik and all the hotel workers. As to this year’s concerts, Rozenberg mentioned that family relations were an integral theme of the program, from members of the Elias Quartet (UK), to members of the Busch Trio (UK), to Russian violinist/countertenor/conductor Dmitry Sinkovsky’s wife performing with his ensemble, to the Jussen Brothers (duo-pianists, Holland), ‘cellist Jonathan Roozeman (Finland) and his pianist brother and to Israeli soprano Claire Meghnagi’s performance with Koby Aflalo, her brother-in-law. Rozenberg referred to this year’s festival as one of the most varied till now and that the concert of the three teenage pianists hailing from Moscow was sure to be a great attraction to guests. He also spoke of a unique performance featuring PA'dam’s singers and instrumentalists (Holland) in a new arrangement of Bach’s Goldberg Variations, adding that actor Dov Glickman (who shared a few informal words with the people at the press conference) would be accompanying it with readings from Bach’s own pen. And for those night owls wishing to hear high quality lighter music, there will be such events as a performance by London duo Koby Israelite and Annique and even a classical jam session!

 

The press conference ended with a glimpse into the final event of the festival - “The House of Bernarda Alba”,  a story of depression, money and love, based on a play by the Spanish dramatist Federico García Lorca. Introduced by Michal Natan of the Compas Dance Company, two dancers gave tender, expressive performances of Javier Latorre’s choreography set to a variety of musical styles.