Between December 9^th and 16^th, 2011, in Cluj Napoca, the 21^st edition of the Mozart Festival is in progress, organised by the Romanian 'Mozart' Society, the Transylvania Philharmonic and the Academy of Music 'Gheorghe Dima'.

Following, we present to you an interview with Adriana Bera, the president of the Romanian 'Mozart' Society.

The Mozart Festival is beginning on December 9^th, in Cluj Napoca. What novelties brings this edition as compared to the previous ones?

It brings a concert of the 'Gheorghe Dima' Academy of Music's Student Orchestra. We wanted to include in the festival's program such a concert, taking as example the Mozart Week from Salzburg, which has every year in its program a concert of the Mozarteum University's Orchestra. Our orchestra will be conducted Thursday evening, on 15^th December, by the Berliner conductor Ferencz Gabor, a familiar and dear guest of the Mozart Festival. Also, this edition brings back the Interpretation Contest, which was called off because of financial reasons, so that Saturday and Sunday takes place a contest for piano trio bands. As a novelty, I announce that all the soloists from this edition are young, very young; some of them are even students in Romania or at great music academies from Europe or Japan. We have a series of young interpreters from Japan and a Chinese pianist. Thus, it is a parade of young talents from all over the world.

This year too, the letter M stands for Mozart. How did the festival evolve in time, if we were to outline a short historic?

We owe a lot to the professor Francisc Laszlo - the founder of this festival and the founder of the Romanian Mozart Society - the one who also affiliated this society to the International Mozarteum Foundation from Salzburg. Our idea was that, continuously, on one hand to promote Mozart's work, and on the other hand to promote the young musicians who stand out through the interpretation of this music and to attract more young people to Mozart's music - the young professionals and the young music lovers. We considered that it is the most accessible music and, in the same time, equilibrated; it is music with educational virtues and very attractive in the same time.

Tell us, please, more about the musical evening that opens the festival. How did you plan the program and who will be the ones performing?

This program was planed by the conductor Ladislau Horvath. The idea was it to be a festive music, somehow, and all works are written in D major, with a very luminous tonality and beneficial for the human psychic. The soloist of this concert is a young flutist, awarded with the 1^st price at the 'Gheorge Dima' contest, organised in February, this year, in Cluj. He is still a student at the National Conservatory from Paris, he is called Seiya Ueno and, even if he is still so young, he is absolutely fascinating.