Celebrating European Values with Classical Music 

This year marked the 14th edition of Chopin Piano Fest Prishtina. With 16 concerts in total, this year’s edition featured artists from Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Ukraine, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovakia, Thailand, United Kingdom, Lithuania, Romania, Canada, Albania and Kosovo, who were impressed by the reception of their works from the local audience and went back home carrying unforgettable artistic experiences and memories from Kosovo. 

Celebrating European values with classical music has become a tradition of Chopin Piano Fest. In its traditional opening on Europe Day on May 9, they invited the Germany-based Ukrainian virtuoso Artem Yasynskyy for a piano recital. Through music, which is people’s universal language, Yasynskyy through his performance transmitted a message of peace, respect and understanding between people and countries with the aim  to also  attract more support from European countries and festivals for Ukrainian artists. 

Opening Chopin Piano Fest on Europe Day, in an excellent collaboration with the European Union Office in Kosovo is an important element of the festival, according to Shega Shkodra, the festival’s communications specialist, who further elaborates the symbolic as an opportunity to celebrate and respect European values through classical music.

Support from other institutions and different EU delegations in Kosovo further reinforces the festival’s team confidence, strength and willingness to stay loyal to their goals to promote these values but also further contribute to promoting Kosovo internationally, which according to Shkodra is an important mission of the festival.