INTERNATIONAL CULTURAL EXCHANGE
American Music Festivals collaborates with organizations around the world to present orchestral concerts of
American music alongside music of the host country.
Our mission is complete after we return to the USA and program concerts featuring music and artists of countries visited, partnering with local community cultural organizations.
AMF has visited the following countries:
Belarus
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Czech Republic
Japan
Russia
Serbia
AMF responds to all requests and proposals for exchange projects. Much of our success has been through the personal connections we make through our concerts and outreach efforts.
AMF believes that “world music” will play an ever more important role in the development of classical music of the 21st Century.
AMF helps provide opportunities for sharing music with as many cultures and places as possible, with an eye on building programs of artistic merit, and relationships that make a lasting difference.
In 2008 Artistic Director Philip Simmons conducted the Classic Avante Garde Soloists and is now preparing a production of Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story with the State Music Theater of Belarus to open in May, 2012. His work in Belarus is in partnership with the US Embassy in Minsk.
Belarusian conductor Anatol Lysenka is Associate Conductor for American Music Festivals. He is the Founder and Music Director of the Tutti Chamber Orchestra (based in Skokie, IL.), which regularly presents Belarusian music and soloists.
AMF has collaborated with a number of B & H organizations in Chicago. In Chicago, concerts by the Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra honoring the nation’s Independence Day programs have been presented at Lake Forest Academy (2007, with former Sarajevo Philharmonic Director Emir Nuhanovic) and at Northeastern IL University (2008, with guitarist Denis Azabagic). The LCO also performed for “Remembering the Day of Srebrenica Genocide” at the Sulzer Branch of the Chicago Public Library.
On October 30, 2009, Mr. Simmons guest conducted the Sarajevo Philharmonic in the National Theater as part of the Bosnian-Herzegovinian American Academy of Arts and Sciences “We are Only Stronger Together” tour. This performance featured Ilya Levinson’s “Sevdah Medley” and was broadcast throughout the country.
These collaborations were made possible through the efforts of AMF Outreach Director Sam Hadzalic.
AMF first visited Bulgaria in 2001, with a concert of American and Bulgarian music with the Razgrad Philharmonic. In 2008 Mr. Simmons returned to Razgrad to adjucate at the Dmitri Nenov International Piano Competition. First prize winner, Victoria Vassilenko (click for video) performed with the Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra in “A Celebration of Bulgarian Culture in Chicago” on May 23, 2010.
American Music Festivals collaborated with pianist and Varna International Arts Forum Director Christo Rachev in 2009. This concert included the premiere of Mr. Simmons orchestral arrangement of Dmitri Nenov's "Miniatures."
Working with pianist Radoslav Kvapil, one of the leading interpreters of Czech music, AMF participated in two American Spring Festivals, in Prague (2006) and South Bohemia (2002). In Chicago, in 2003 Mr. Kvapil performed the Dvorak Piano Concerto with the Glenview Symphony, and mezzo soprano Edita Randova appeared with the Lincolnwood Chamber Orchestra.
In 2009, the LCO performed a special multi-media program inspired by Martinu’s Nonet No. 2, which was attended by the Czech Consulate in Chicago.
Poster by David Zoberis.
AMF’s first exchange from Hawaii in 2010 saw Hiroaki Ueba conduct the Orchestra of the Hawaiian Islands in a program which included both Japanese and American Music, and Philip Simmons conducting the Ensemble Orchestra Sendai.
AMF was created in 1998 specifically to facilitate programming of American music in Russia. These efforts culminated in 2004 with a July 4 Independence Day concert by the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic.
Among AMF’s collaborators in Russia have been the Saint Petersburg Philharmonia, Russian State Symphony and Moscow Conservatory, Hermitage Music Foundation, Peter the Great International Music Foundation, US Embassy in Moscow, and the US Consulate in Saint Petersburg.
In 2009, on the Russian Independence Day, the Sochi Symphony Orchestra performed a special concert dedicated to American-Russian relations.
Many programs in Chicago have been devoted to Russian music, including the 2002 “Three Russian Tenors in America” (in collaboration with Russian-American Educational and Cultural Center), a recording project of music of Alexander Tcherepnin (with bass-baritone Andrew Schultze and Ars Musica Chicago) and concerts in Preston Bradley Hall of the Chicago Cultural Center that featured legendary vocalist William Warfield, Chicago Symphony Orchestra violinist Albert Igolnikov, and the US premier of Ilya Levinson’s “Chicago Fantasy.”
In the summer of 2006, AMF worked with the Chicago-Belgrade Sister Cities International Committee, US Embassy in Belgrade, and Jugokoncert for a July 4 concert in Belgrade’s Municipal Hall with the St. George Strings. The concert included American and Serbian music, and featured French cellist Phillipe Muller.