News
Viljandi Folk Music Festival focuses on solo
18.12.2008
The theme of XVII Viljandi Folk Music Festival is Solo. By choosing this theme, we would like to draw attention to one of the most important skills for folk musicians - the ability to play alone but still make the whole village dance the night away.
Playing solo is the most important form of music-making in the folk music traditions of many nations. In some places it is considered to be the simplest and most natural way to perform music. One musician or singer is enough to get the party started. At the same time, this kind of music requires individual mastery and the ability to convince people. Simply being proficient at handling an instrument is usually not enough. The singer or musician has to be broad-minded and good at communicating, has to know the background of the music and be familiar with the mores and traditions. A solo artist has to have a radiant personality.
Viljandi Folk Music festival 2009 takes a bow to one of the most important skills for folk musicians - the ability to play solo and capture the audience with your outstanding performance.
Several solo musicians and solo singers from both Estonia and abroad will perform at the festival. Needless to say, groups of two or more will also present their music at the festival, because groups do also consist of individual musicians, many of whom have a brilliant solo artist hidden inside.
XVII Viljandi Folk Music Festival is held on 23-26 July, 2009.