What's behind the motto of this year's edition of the New Music International Week Festival - 'it is what it is'?

'It is what it is' launches the invitation and the challenge to step into un unknown space, an unpredictable one, a place we have dedicated to surrealism, where every familiar models and conventions are exceeded, so that we open up to things we do not know and to be curious and defeat our fear of the unknown and, at the same time, it is an invitation to appreciate and love every display and manifestation of artistic creativity, just as they are presented by the musicians - authors and performers who are guests of this festival, of this edition.

What is new in this year's edition? Or you might say that everything is new?

I believe there is a large portion of novelty, of originality. The artists' creativity was stimulated by the proposed theme, the surrealist one, and so, we can meet with original experiences, like a showcase show, a science-fiction opera - there are many events where the borders disappear between arts, between music and theatre and dance. There is a lot of technology in the projects submitted by the artists - video projections, laser light design; there is a lot of new stuff that the new music absorbs in this edition, from several areas, from many artistic places of expression, which are, actually, those of today, of the present, of the 21^stcentury.

You have chosen novel starting hours for each concert: 6:31 p.m., 9:03 p.m., 7:17 p.m. What do they symbolize?

It's a personalization made on purpose. Every concert has its own hour, the hours do not repeat. It's a creative game, also a surrealist one, of the producer of the festival. I allowed myself to play even with the programme book and with this hour display. Somehow, this comes as an extension of the fact or of the realization that in Romania - and we have a place in which 'it is what it is' helps us somehow to incorporate everything that is happening - performances never start at the marked hour, except in Radio Hall, where they are broadcasted live.

What are the events you would especially recommend to the audience and who are some of the artists invited at this edition?

We have a spectacular opening concert, with a group of children from the Radio Children's Choir and a percussion ensemble, with young composers, at the Opera Studio of the National University of Music Bucharest. There are showcase shows at the Caminul Artei Gallery, in collaboration with the Artists Union, where the public is outside and they assist at the sound performance of what is happening inside an exhibition, in a lighted showcase - this show begins at 9 p.m.

Then, we have a guest that is very dear to us, a friend of Romanian music, Barrie Webb from England, who is continuing his Barrie and Barbieproject, which is endorsed by British Council, it is a surreal series - this time Barrie Webb has a much more extended vision, more complex than the one from last year, so we can foresee a series because this is the second episode. The show is on 20^thMay.

A surrealist opera by George Balint, at the Cantacuzino Palace, on writings by Pythagoras and… here is an exciting combination, that brings up a lot of questions and incites curiosities; a SF opera at the Voivodal Residence, at the Old Princely Court - an alien camp is throwing a ball for earthlings, the entrance is through an alien embassy, where the audience must obtain its visa - so it's an electro-opera, with transformed voices, processed live, with architectural projections, with lasers - this performance will be on 21^stMay, in the evening, at 8:30 p.m.

There will be a singing show with birds at the Bucharest National Opera, Kaoss Birds in Now Here's Ville, a subtitle being 'Papageno and Papagena in His Town Here and Now'. The birds are real, parrots and canaries, which are taken and processed in real time, and this song is the backbone of the show in which the musicians talk to the natural world, the wild world, if we are to think of it this way. Again, this is an adventurous experience, because the birds can give us a lot of surprises, but this is in fact the theme of the festival and we have taken everything under consideration.

There are two important concerts at the Radio Hall, with the Radio's orchestras and choirs - the National Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra. There are a lot of first auditions with soloists at the Chamber Orchestra, with Mario Caroli (Italy), with Eduardo Terol (Spain). Again, multimedia shows - of Maia Ciobanu, of Catalin Cretu - video, acting, children, dance and a lot of surprises, about the performance and also about the décor.

Dan Dediu presents an extremely attractive project and is somehow a preview of the opera that will be performed at the Bucharest National Opera at the end of the year, on Caragiale's 'Lost Letter', this time there will be a preview - sequences of the music-hall opera, titled 'Scarecrows and Mummies'- obviously a surrealist, postmodernist approach by Dan Dediu.

An extremely complex show, where fear seduces and the seduction arises fear, will be at the National Theatre, at the Amphitheatre Hall, Saturday, 26^thMay, because in the end of the festival we wanted a show by Corneliu Dan Georgescu, titled 'Audio-Video Décor With and For an Illusion of a Woman'- it is a show where the author has given very few hints to the public; obviously we know the project, but for the public all will be revealed at the premiere, and so we will leave this trace of mystery the author desired.