The fifty-fourth Belgrade Music Festival (BEMUS) was officially opened on 1 November 2022, in the Concert Hall of the Kolarac Endowment, organized by the Belgrade Festivals Centre (CEBEF).
BEMUS was officially opened by Nataša Mihailović Vacić, Secretary for Culture of the City of Belgrade, and Damir Handanović, Director of CEBEF. The opening of this year's edition of the oldest and most important music festival in Serbia was also attended by the Chief of the Cabinet of the Minister of Culture Branislav Maričić.
The world-famous opera star, Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel, opened the music part of the programme with the Virtuosi Festival Orchestra, conductor Bojan Suđić and soprano Sofija Petrović.
Numerous figures from public and cultural life of Belgrade and Serbia were present at the opening. In the first part, the programme consisted of the classical repertoire (Wagner, Beethoven, Verdi), and in the second part of the concert, numbers from famous musicals were performed (‘Fiddler on the Roof’, ‘Cats’, ‘Camelot’, ‘Les Misérables’).
Welsh bass-baritone Bryn Terfel has established an extraordinary career, regularly performing in the world’s prestigious concert halls and opera houses. Bojan Suđić is the chief conductor of the Symphony Orchestra and Choir of Radio Television of Serbia. He is also a full professor at the Conducting Department of the Faculty of Music in Belgrade. From the very beginning, his work has been distinguished by the exceptional breadth and diversity of the choral, symphonic and incidental music repertoire, outstanding achievements in all these areas and numerous awards. Sofija Petrović has collaborated with many orchestras and opera houses around the world, and in September 2022 she made her debut in the role of Carmen at the Serbian National Theatre in Novi Sad.
The fifty-fourth BEMUS takes place from 1 to 15 November under the slogan ‘Seductive... like music!’ with an exceptionally varied programme in a wide stylistic range, from Renaissance and Baroque music to contemporary works.
