The Cultural Affairs Bureau of the Macau SAR Government will hold the 21st Macau International Music Festival (MIMF) from October 5 to 31.

The festival that brings internationally-acclaimed artists from all over the world to Macau every year, has now become a major musical event in the territory.

The event reflects the diversity and uniqueness of the enclave and enriches the region's cultural life while meeting the community's expectations and aspirations. This year's program will comprise opera, symphonic music, chamber music, contemporary music, pop and modern music, and offer a more dynamic encounter between East and West.

Famous Portuguese artist Maria Joo Pires returns to Macau 25 years after her unforgettable recital at Sir Robert Ho Tung Library at the invitation of the Cultural Institute to play the music: Beethoven and Mozart.

While the Portuguese woo Macau's orchestra at the Cultural Centre, Maestro Alexander Vedernikov conducts the Russian National Orchestra on a tour through three of Russia's greatest composers: Mikhail Glinka, Sergei Prokofiev and Piotr I. Tchaikovsky. Still more international artists travel to the SAR to present what will be one of the most eclectic programs in the history of the MIMF. Seventeen concerts of traditional, classical, pop, electronic and new-age music from Finland, Argentina, Austria, the Czech Republic, Brazil, Italy, Germany, Singapore and Canada will be presented during the festival.

The MIMF will be launched by a pair of operas. Rigoletto has the opening honors on October 5, remaining on the scene for three nights. An energetic cast sings the love story that inspired a Verdi brimming with emotion. Italian vocalism bares its deep roots with a very unique production of Don Giovanni, the last of Mozart's operas.

The event will also feature the mesmerizing voices of the Vienna Boys Choir. After their journey to Macau along the Silk Route four years ago and an earlier appearance in 2001, the Austrian choir now drops anchor in the deep waters of the Germanic tradition, with the polkas and waltzes of Strauss at the Clementina Leito Ho Brito Theatre.

But even before the arrival of the Austrians, Europe comes into view at Dom Pedro V Theatre with two trios from quite different musical traditions. On October 10, the Omniart Trio ignites an emotional fuse leading to South America and the tango footwork of Astor Piazzolla. This music is an invitation to the dance and an inspiration for accordionist Ruggiero Mascellino, who displays his talent as a composer as well, offering several works of his own on the program.

Besides the multicultural aspect presented in each year at the MIMF, Jaime Torres and his charango guitar bring the musical culture of the Andes to Macau, as the sikus and quena flutes accompany this virtuoso in a dance of the Americas where the steps of the tango and the melodies of the Coplas take turns on the floor.

Alongside these border-crossing ventures, the MIMF maintains ties with the homeland at the Dom Pedro V Theatre, as the Beijing New Music Ensemble builds a bridge to the West with Sounds in Migration on October 21. The orchestral works by Western composers with links to China will offer the audience a taste of East-West fusion.

The Macau Chinese Orchestra will honor Jenny Yen with a stroll down the festival's red carpet. The Cantopop star should feel at home as she shares her successes. Her career was centered on Hong Kong and Taiwan, but few know she was in fact born in Macau.

After the orchestras have heated up the Macau Cultural Centre stage, it's time for the celebrated Broadway musical Grease. The melodramatic marriage of song and dance, albeit American style, will run for four nights from October 26 to 29 to tell the love story of Sandy and Danny immortalized by Olivia Newton-John and John Travolta on the silver screen. Still, it was on Broadway that Summer Loving and Greased Lightnin first won fans for the musical, created in 1959 by the duo Jim Jacobs and Warren Casey.

(China Daily July 29, 2007)