Pianists in the Spotlight at Belgrade's Classical Festival

Pianists are at the forefront of the programme at Serbia's longest-running music festival this year, with two Russian virtuosos - Boris Berezovsky and Dmitri Masleev - announced as headliners.

This year's BEMUS runs from October 19 to November 1, with concerts at five different Belgrade venues - the Ilija M. Kolarac Endowment, the Serbian parliament building, the Ethnography Museum, the Madlenianum Theatre and St. Michael's Cathedral.

BEMUS Artistic Director, Composer Svetislav Bozic, told local Belgrade TV station Studio B that the festival this year will be diverse both musically and in terms of performers.

Bozic said that the programme will include everything from early to contemporary classical music, performed not only by musicians with longstanding careers but also artists by who are still in school and making a name for themselves.

"The forthcoming BEMUS is a programme designed to sound on stage like a tonal archipelago of the legacy of the styles of the past, but also of the new age, the contemporary people, the composers and performers of our time," Bozic was quoted as saying by Danas daily.

All the great masters will be covered, including performances of pieces by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin, Brahms, Stravinsky, Debussy and many more.

But there will also be performances of pieces written by young Serbian classical composers, with the BEMUS team putting in special efforts this year to promote the work of up-and-coming, domestic artists.

Bozic said that one of the events that the organisers are most excited about is the 'Young Artists Concert', which is going to be held at the parliament building.

The three young artists featured are violinist Nemanja Belaj and two pianists, Vuk Bozilovic and Nenad...