InClassica: Dubai to host 10th anniversary of classical music festival

The month-long event will be held at Dubai Opera and the Coca-Cola Arena

The Coca-Cola Arena, left, and Dubai Opera will be home to the 10th anniversary of the InClassica International Music Festival. Chris Whiteoak / The National, Alamy Stock Photo

One of the world’s leading classical musical festivals is making its way to Dubai this month.

Presented by the European Foundation for Support of Culture (EUFSC) together with Samit Event Group, the InClassica International Music Festival will take place in the emirate from August 28 to September 26.

The festival, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary, will first be held at Dubai Opera before moving to the Coca-Cola Arena. It will bring together 38 soloists, eight orchestras and 12 conductors, all of whom are considered contemporary luminaries of the classical genre.

Among the soloists performing at the festival are Grammy Award-winning violinist Gil Shaham, Emmy Award-winning soprano Danielle De Niese and Echo Klassik award-winning pianist Rudolf Buchbinder.

International orchestras performing at the festival include the Armenian State Symphony Orchestra, the Russian National Orchestra and the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, among others. InClassica will also premiere new music throughout the month-long event, with Maltese composer Alexey Shor taking on the role of composer-in-residence for the festival.

The 10th iteration of the festival was originally slated to take place in Valletta, Malta. However, Covid-19 restrictions on public events in the Mediterranean archipelago necessitated a change in location.

“In spite of the disappointment we feel at not being able to hold InClassica in the location originally scheduled, we are nonetheless excited for this new challenge, and look forward to introducing our esteemed performers and professors to new audiences,” Konstantin Ishkhanov, president of EUFSC, said in June.

The festival will kick off with a piano recital at Dubai Opera by Marc-Andre Hamelin. The Canadian virtuoso will play compositions by Bach, Franz Schubert and Sergei Prokofiev. Tickets to the recital, as with most InClassica shows, start at Dh210.

The festival’s concluding show, the Grand Finale, will take place at the Coca-Cola Arena and will feature London's Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Russian conductor Alexander Sladkovsky and Russian pianist Denis Matsuev. The group will play pieces by two of Russia’s greatest composers: Sergei Rachmaninoff and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky.

More information is available on the festival’s website