On June 17, at the Ancient Theatre in Taormina, Taobuk-SeeSicily will present the German violinist and composer with the prestigious Award at the Festival Gala Evening, broadcast on Rai Uno. Then, on June 18, it will perform a concert-premiere of the ‘David Garrett Trio Iconic Tour’.
Taobuk Award to David Garrett: the great music at the Festival core
Double “iconic” event for David Garrett at the Taobuk Festival – SeeSicily: the German violinist and composer will be awarded in the setting of the Teatro Antico in Taormina during the Gala Evening on June 17. The following day, the Festival will offer another great moment, also at the Ancient Theatre: Garrett will perform the first of the Italian concerts of the “David Garrett Trio Iconic Tour”.
In this 13th edition dedicated to the Theme of ‘Freedoms’ and realised with the support of the Sicilian Region – Department of Tourism, Sport and Entertainment, Garrett will be presented with the Taobuk Award “for his exceptional contribution to music, which explores different genres with an incredible capability for syncretism, exalting the genius of the great composers of the past,” as Antonella Ferrara, President and Artistic Director of the Festival, explains.
During the evening event ‘Taobuk Gala’ broadcast on Rai Uno, Garrett will perform with the Orchestra of the Teatro Massimo Bellini and tell the audience about his special relationship with the great musicians of all time. In addition to the violinist, the other winners of the Taobuk Awards 2023 will take the stage; for Literature, the French and 2022 Nobel Prize winner Annie Ernaux, the Iranian writer Azar Nafisi and the American Joyce Carol Oates; for Science, the American essayist and populariser David Quammen.
Garrett – who achieved international success for his extraordinary ability to synthesise genres that are far in time and space, bringing a heterogeneous audience closer to classical music – will return to the Greek Theatre the following day, again as part of the Taobuk Festival-SeeSicily, with the preview of the Italian concerts of his ‘David Garrett Trio ICONIC Tour’, which will see him perform from 18 to 25 July in some of Italian major festivals.
Following the success of the 2022 tour, which featured 32 concerts in 11 countries, Garrett opens a new chapter that includes iconic musicians (from Bach to Dvořák, Gluck to Kreisler, Mendelssohn to Schumann) in a new trio line-up, together with Franck van der Heijden (guitar) and Rogier van Wegberg (bass), with new arrangements capable of mixing the virtuosity of classical music with the melodies of great rock songs.
Tickets for the preview in Taormina will be on sale from 16 March on Ticketone.
After Taormina, the tour – organised by International Music and Arts, Resia Artists and Taobuk Festival – will move on July 18 at the MusArt in Florence (Piazza Santissima Annunziata); on July 19 in Rome as a guest of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia at the Auditorium Parco della Musica; on July 21 in Genoa at the Parchi di Nervi (Villa Grimaldi); on July 22 at the Arena della Regina in Cattolica; on July 24 at the Arena Sferisterio in Macerata and on July 25 in Brescia in Piazza della Loggia.
Garrett made his stage debut at the age of 10. At 13, he became the youngest artist ever to sign with the prestigious Deutsche Grammophon, with whom he released the album that gave this tour its name last November. At only 15, he recorded all 24 of Paganini’s Capricci, undoubtedly some of his most challenging pieces ever written for the violin.
He has worked with legendary conductors such as Zubin Mehta, Claudio Abbado and Yeuhudi Menuhin, who called him ‘the greatest violinist of his generation’. It was at this point of his career that he decided to sharpen his skills, enrolling and graduating from the prestigious Juilliard School in New York. In 2013, he also experimented with cinema, playing the role of Paganini in the film ‘The Devil’s Violinist’
The 2023 edition of the international literary festival Taobuk Festival – SeeSicily will be dedicated to the theme ‘Freedoms’, and is realised with the support of the Sicilian Region – Department of Tourism, Sport and Entertainment, and with the contribution of the Regional Department of Cultural Heritage and Sicilian Identity, Naxos Taormina Archaeological Park, Taormina Arte Sicilia Foundation, City of Taormina, University of Messina, University of Catania, Teatro Massimo Bellini.
Scheduled events
