<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>333420</docID> <postdate>2024-11-18 20:00:00</postdate> <headline>New festival director puts Liberté to music</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-333472" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Eugene-Ughetti-at-the-Italian-embassy.-Photo-Peter-Hislop-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="600" /></p> <caption>Eugene Ughetti pictured at the CIMF 2025 launch. Photo: Peter Hislop</caption> <p><strong>The new director of the Canberra International Music Festival, Eugene Ughetti, unveiled his program for 2025 at the Italian ambassador’s residence on Monday evening under the theme of Liberté.</strong></p> <p>Ughetti, who has succeeded retiring director Roland Peelman in the role, said: “International politics and contemporary culture troubles our ability to have difficult conversations and find compromise… leaving little space for the difficult and necessary work of listening.â€</p> <p>With that in mind, he said, he had sought to create a “thoughtful space†celebrating musical artistic expression.</p> <p>His plan is to use a variety of venues over the festival's five days, including Lake Burley Griffin, the Finnish Embassy, Canberra Glassworks, Snow Concert Hall and the National Film and Sound Archive.</p> <p>The festival will open with a performance by the Melbourne Chamber Orchestra, joined by the Flinders and Ellery Quartets, of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis and Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, alongside new works such as the world premiere of Richard Mills’ violin concerto.</p> <p>Marking the 60th anniversary of Lake Burley Griffin, Five Short Blasts by Madeleine Flynn and Tim Humphrey will be performed on a flotilla of five boats crossing the lake.</p> <p>Other highlights outlined by Ughetti included:</p> <ul> <li><em>First Nations artist Mark Atkins’ premiere of Mungangga Garlagula;</em></li> <li><em>Finnish musicians Paavali Jumppanen, Satu Vänskä and Erkki Veltheim, playing compositional works by Saariaho and Sibelius;</em></li> <li><em>MOSSO: music in motion, a day-long festival-within-a-festival at the NFSA;</em></li> <li><em>A troupe of renowned French pipers from Brittany, led by musical maverick Erwan Keravec performing their 8 Pipers for Philip Glass project.</em></li> </ul> <p><em>Canberra International Music Festival, 2025, April 30-May 4. </em></p> <p> </p> </body>