The solo concert of Czech singer and violinist Iva Bittova, who lives and works in the United States, will open the 15th OFFest on Friday.
Six other concerts feature the program of this year's festival, which will run up to May 30.
"Her irresistible charm, original use of voice, and fondness of melodies that sit on the border of avant-garde and playground nursery rhymes won her devoted fans around the world. For many years she has worked in a range of musical genres including jazz, idiosyncratic folk, rock, contemporary classical, improvisation and opera. Her voice is one of the many extraordinary things: she shifts between speaking, incantation, and singing, and the sounds are given intuitive colorations that move perceived meanings up and down a trajectory of joy and sadness. Her violin, on the other hand, is a mirror reflecting her dreams and imagination", says the festival in its announcement for Bittova's concert, held at Frosina cinema theater.
French band St. Germain will perform in the Metropolis Arena later in the evening.
"Twenty years after 'Boulevard', his renowned debut album, fifteen years after the award-winning 'Tourist', the record that took him around the world, Ludovic Navarre alias St Germain has decided to surprise us. A pioneer of the 'French Touch', a creator of intelligent, sensual and original deep house, jazz and lounge, St Germain has always been known for his uncanny ability to subtly blend machines and instruments, authentic roots and modern influences. After fifteen years, the smooth jazz house hit maker embarked on an extended period of research and experimentation, burrowing into the music of West Africa to find links between Africa and the blues in the work of visionary Malian guitarist Ali Farka Toure. The result is the new eponymous self-titled album that takes listeners on a unique and colorful journey. Recorded with the participation of the finest African musicians and singers from Mali to Senegal, the album features traditional Malian instruments like the kora, the balafon or the n'goni, that mingle with electric guitars, pianos, saxophones and electronic loops, following a secret formula that only he could devise", says OFFest management.
OFFest was established in 2002 as a second festival, which arose from the long-established traditional Skopje Jazz Festival. The main idea was to fill the gap outside the jazz festival and to create another important music event in a different period of the year, and in terms of music genres, wide-oriented.
It was a natural decision to start OFFest festival in a decade of full globalization and fast growing creativity, as well as raising awareness of the so-called 'world music'. OFFest presents a variety of music from all continents, focusing on different categories of world music: traditional, ethno, folk, roots, to urban, as well as contemporary and experimental music styles. A lot of renowned artist from all over the world performed throughout OFFest's history.