Summer Music Rays Festival

6 August 2020

After a little pause, Ukraine’s National Philharmonic is coming out of quarantine with an exciting programme. As it is tradition, the Summer Music Rays Festival will take place from 6 to 26 August. Kyiv’s residents and guests will indulge in 10 concerts featuring unsurpassed performers and exquisite classical music of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. For the first time ever, the festival will be broadcast live online.

Here are some highlights for the month. All shows begin at 19.00.

Just Hits, 6 August: The opening night will treat music lovers to fragments from the best world operas by Italian and French composers of the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Idyll, 10 August: Kyiv Soloists will present the concert Idyll. This is the title of a suite for the string orchestra by Czech Leoš Janaček. Works by classical composers of the 19th and 20th centuries will enhance the evening.
Jazz Hits, 11 August: Big Band has prepared a great collection of the most popular jazz melodies of the 20th century. Among them Joe Garland’s In The Mood, Billy Strayhorn’s Take The “A” Train, Percy Mayfield’s Hit The Road Jack, George Gershwin’s Summertime, Billy Potts’ Big Swing Face, Nick Lane’s Admiral’s horn, Gordon Goodwin’s A Few Good Men and many more.
Grieg, Tchaikovsky, Elgar, 12 August: Kyiv Chamber Orchestra will play lyrical pieces of music, including Serenades for String Orchestra by Peter Tchaikovsky and Edward Elgar.
Guitar Nights, 13 August: Honoured Artist of Ukraine Andriy Ostapenko will delight us with works by Francisco Tarrega, Isaac Albéniz, Federico Moreno Torroba, Joaquín Rodrigo, Julio Salvador Sagreras, Heitor Villa-Lobos, Erik Satie, Roland Dyens, and others.
Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Sperger, Dittersdorf, 17 August: Kyiv Kamerata will perform compositions by Austrian classical composers of the 18th and 19th centuries. ”
Glen Miller, 18 August: Pamper yourself with the repertoire of the legendary Glenn Miller Orchestra that manifests the spirit of American jazz of the 1930s-1940s.
Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, Piazzola’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, 19 August: Vivaldi, Haydn, Tchaikovsky, Piazzolla are just a few classical composers who addressed the topic. Musical seasons certainly appeal to the hearts of listeners, because people constantly think about life and death, the meaning of existence.
Duke Ellington, 25 August: In the programme – C Jam Blues, In A Mellotone, In A Sentimental Mood (Duke Ellington), Mack the Knife (Кurt Weill and Мarc Blitzstein), My Funny Valentine (Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart), Night and Day (Cole Porter) and many more
Company, 26 August: Company is the title of a string orchestra by modern American composer Philip Glass. The work was performed in a play based on Samuel Beckett’s poem that premiered in 1983 in New York.