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At the NEO Festival on July 1st and 3rd, Japanese artists performed with the support of the EU-Japan Fest Committee. The NEO Festival – an unconventional classical music festival – offered audiences in Novi Sadeight concerts of diverse genres this year. Festival evenings featured traditional Balkan chants, as well as works by Viennese classical composers, romantics, and those exploring more contemporary harmonies and 20th-century styles.

Under this year’s theme “In the Constellation of Music,” artists from around the world navigated different musical orbits, united by their dedication to the score and pursuit of excellence in performance. It was a journey through space and time of music. In the footsteps of ancient thinkers who considered music as part of the sound of the cosmos, linking music to the stars, this year’s NEO from June 26th to July 5th promised extraterrestrial sonic experiences. The main sponsor of the NEO Festival is the City Administration for Culture of Novi Sad, supported by the Cultural Center of Novi Sad, EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee, the Provincial Secretariat for Culture, Public Information, and Relations with Religious Communities, and the Ministry of Culture of Serbia. The festival sponsors include: Via inženjering, Put-Invest, CPL,Vojvodinaput, and IDEA.

On the concert of the opening of the NEO festival, Braća Teofilovići celebrated 30 years of their artistic performance with guests: Nebojša Živković (marimba), Boban Bjelić (accordeon) and Maja Radovanlija (guitar). We had pleasure also to enjoy in the orbit of baroque sound with Camerata Novi Sad and Alexander Sitkovetzky (violin) and Irena Josifoska (cello) who played as well in the NEO ensamble I together with Benjamin Ziegervogel (violin), Martin Moriarti (viola), Jožef Bisak(viola) and Marko Miletić (cello) on the concert the dayafter. Two chamber music that are worth to mention which are played at City Hall are Piano duo: Mihajlo Zurković and Lidija Bizjak with the name of the concert “Ballet between the fingers” and Varga trio made by Oskar Varga (violin), Ištvan Varga (cello) and Gabor Čalog (piano). The name of the concert of Varga trio was “In the Orbit of Romantism”.

One such musical understanding arose through collaboration with the EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee, which has been promoting young Japanese artists here for several years. Specifically, a group of Japanese musicians made a significant mark at this year’s NEO Festival, delivering inventive performances of chamber works by Spanish composers and classics, impressionism, and jazz composers on two occasions.

At the first concert titled “Viva España,” the Japanese chamber ensemble comprising Mutsumi Ito (flute), Kenichi Furuya (bassoon), Yukiko Uno and Fumika Mori (violins), and Shinosuke Inugai (piano) presented works by De Falla, Albeniz, Sarasate, Turina, and contemporary composer Tanja Leon. Their passionate and extremely virtuosic selection demonstrated that music truly knows no boundaries or linguistic barriers, as East Asian musicians delivered stunningly inspired performances that prompted encores, despite the concert exceeding its scheduled duration. Another festival highlight was the concert named “Encounter of Classical and Jazz” showcasing a wide range of musical history from the classical period to intriguing jazz interpretations from the early 20th century. They showed equal dedication to different genres, turning their foray into popular culture into an exciting sonic adventure.

However, this year’s collaboration with the NEO Festival did not end with these two mentioned concerts. Japanese artists performed at the spectacular closing of NEO, joining forces with the Danube Symphony Orchestra to perform Gustav Holst’s famous “Planets.” This audio-visual experience, conducted by maestro Maxim Rizanov, featured simultaneous video projections of the planets on the walls of the cathedral in Novi Sad, creating a memorable performance that will be long remembered and talked about by Japanese musicians and everyone who witnessed it on stage or in the audience.

Moreover, besides their artistic engagements, Japanese musicians also contributed to educational initiatives. Kenichi Furuya conducted a bassoon masterclass at the Isidor Bajic Music School,rounding out this year’s Japanese-Serbian collaboration. The collaboration between the NEO Festival and EU-Japan Fest Japan Committee was exceptionally successful and fruitful, likely to continue in the future.

This year’s edition of the NEO festival attracted a large audience, presented the stars of classical music, introduced future generations of musical performers, reminded of significant works in the history of music and presented lesser-known ones and also largely demonstrated that chamber sound can be achieved through joint cooperation, professional engagement and vision towards quality presentation and interpretation of classical music creation.