On Tuesday, March 9^th, 2021, at 13.00, a press conference took place online, on the official website of the George Enescu Festival, with the aim of informing about the unfolding of this autumn's event. The 2021 edition of the George Enescu International Festival is one with a double anniversary significance - it marks 140 years since the composer's birth and is the 25th. This time the theme of the event is "A story from love", as stated by Oana Marinescu , Communication Director of the George Enescu Festival and Contest and moderator of this meeting. The 2021 edition will take place between August 28^th and September 26^th and will have 3,700 artists invited.

Bogdan Gheorghiu, Minister of Culture, specified that the good progress of the festival depends to a large extent on the epidemiological situation and the degree of vaccination of the population; also from his statement we found out that the Ministry of Culture has allocated RON 52 million for the organization of the festival. The press conference was also attended by Colonel Dr. Valeriu Gheorghiță, Coordinator of the National Vaccination Campaign, who stressed the importance of vaccination and assured the organizers of all his support and that of his team. Sergiu Nistor, Presidential Adviser on Culture, was also invited; he recalled that President Klaus Iohannis named 2021 the year of George Enescu and also that in the relations of this period with France the personality and creation of the Romanian artist play a very important role.

And at the 2021 edition, the artistic director of the Enescu Festival is the conductor Vladimir Jurowski, who had a recorded intervention, unable to be present live due to rehearsals for a new opera production in Munich. The conductor spoke about the program, drawing attention to the fact that the version presented now is an ideal one, on which changes will certainly occur, in the current context of the pandemic. Enescu's music will be very important for this edition as well, the audience having a rarity - the opposite of Strigoii. In addition, the emphasis will be on the creation of Igor Stravinsky, whose death will be 5021 in 2021 - thus included in the program many scores of the Russian composer, including some performed in the first Romanian audition. Vladimir Jurowski also said that new, contemporary music is very well highlighted in this year's festival program and that internationally renowned artists - such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Sir Simon Rattle or Simon Keenlyside - will appear not only in such opposites. called classics, but also in creations for the first time - new music sung at the highest level, so. The work is also very important and this time - again with an emphasis on 20th century creation - works by Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Alexander von Zemlinsky, Alban Berg and George Enescu are scheduled. Jurowski also launched an appeal to the government, sponsors and the public - the artist's request is for everyone involved to work together for the festival to take place. He encouraged the public to buy tickets, either for the concert hall or for online viewing, noting that the halls will probably not operate at full capacity, as reductions may be needed on stage as a whole. The important thing is that the festival exists and takes place, concluded Vladimir Jurowski.

Mihai Constantinescu, Executive Director of the George Enescu International Festival spoke about the importance of the presence of Romanian ensembles at the event, about the desire and hope that most of the invited musicians, as well as most of the public, will already be vaccinated. Mihai Constantinescu added that the 2021 edition will be larger, lasting four weeks, in the context in which there were many ensembles that wanted to participate. Another intervention was that of Claudiu Popa, Managing Director of Eventim - he spoke about the campaign to sell subscriptions in the lottery system, which will be launched in June 2021. The registration will be done through a form, and the draw at random by electronic methods, without human intervention in the winner selection algorithm. Claudiu Popa recommends following the official website of the festival, the facebook page, as well as installing the alarm ticket on the eventim platform in order to have greater chances of obtaining tickets and subscriptions for the Enescu festival.

The moderator of the conference, Oana Marinescu, also said that at the moment there are several scenarios regarding the sale of tickets and season tickets - the most optimistic means that from June 15^th (at the latest) they will be put on sale. In any case, more information will be available at the end of May. As the concerts will be available to the public both in the hall and online, the organizers said that the streaming platform for pay-per-view access is currently being strengthened, assuring the public that prices will not be prohibitive. We will know more in June, when the number of available tickets and the procedure for entering the halls will be announced.