LIVE MUSIC AT THE 20th ANNIVERSARY OF ASTRA FILM FESTIVAL
Astra Film Festival (14th to 20th of October) 2013 brings the best of this autumn’s delights: 110 films, international releases, documentaries concerning Romania, the anniversary programme RETRO 20, hundreds of specialists of the field, Q&A sessions, meetings, round tables, conferences and masterclasses. In brief: a cinematographic week lived at maximum intensity! But even more than that, following the tradition set by past editions, Astra Film Festival 2013 is to host too a series of concerts prone to delight the audience every evening, after 9 o’clock, in the lobby of the House of Culture in Sibiu.
On Monday, the 14th of October, after the opening film Google and The World Brain (19:00), followed by a Q&A session with the director Ben Lewis, the audience is awaited to attend a concert of Ada Milea, accompanied by two actors coming from Cluj: Cristi Rigman and Anca Hanu. The name of Ada Milea is for sure one that doesn’t need anymore being introduced to Romanians, the artist’s distinction in our country’s musical landscape stemming from the unmistakable humour of her lyrics.
On Tuesday, the 15th of October, Bucium/Alpenhorn band is to give an acoustic concert assisted by multimedia projections, which turns their live performance into a true musical cultural act. Bucium/Alpenhorn is a Romanian folk, rock and ambiental band made out of two violins together with acoustic guitar, bass guitar, drums, traditional instruments and vocals. Through progressive, Bucium/Alpenhorn transposes traditions and folk rythms and beliefs into a contemporary key.
On Wednesday, the 16th of October, the audience will get closer to nature due to the quondam folklore band Peste Pădure / Across the Forest, a band founded in 2011 in Sibiu out of love for the Romanian lands and for the authentic tradition.
On Thursday, the 17th of October, FloriMan (Mircea Florian) brings to Sibiu and extraordinary artistic act occasioned by the 100th anniversary of the one who was Maria Tănase, the Romanian singer calles by her contemporaries ‘the enchanted mocking bird’ – a concert which brings back into the limelight the artist’s relationship with the ethnomusicologist Harry Brauner. Due to modern technology, the voice of Maria Tănase will dialogize with the public and her image will melt in these days’ imaginarium.
On Friday, the 18th of October, Raul Kusak and the Adrian Naidin Quartet are to get together in an original project, assisted by Eugen Amarandei on bass viol and by Gabriel Bălașa on percussion. Cântice'n Cerc / Round Singing is one of the most successful world jazz projects of 2013.
On Saturday, the 19th of October, after the Awards Ceremony held at the Thalia Theatre in Sibiu, Szilvasi Gipsy Folk Band from Budapest are coming back to Astra Film Festival after 13 years, to close the anniversary concerts’ series and the 20th edition of one of the grandest events in the European and global landscape of non-fictional cinematography.