Kirill Karabits, Artistic Director of the I, CULTURE Orchestra, conducts the orchestra for their fifth-anniversary tour of Europe from 17 – 28 August, alongside Lisa Batiashvili.

The first two concerts of the tour, Gdańsk (17) and Berlin (20), feature pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk as soloist. Batiashvili then joins the orchestra for three further concerts including a unique open-air performance in Kiev’s Maidan Square as part of President Petro Poroshenko’s official Independence Day celebration on 24 August, where the orchestra perform Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Symphony No.9, along with a selection of pieces with Batiashvili. The final concerts of the tour take place in Batumi (26) and Santander (28).

Working with young musicians is of great importance to Karabits, and his collaboration with the orchestra has been hugely successful since he first worked with them in 2013. The critically acclaimed 2014 European tour, which he conducted, saw them perform at the Baltic Sea Festival, Festival de la Roque d’Anthéron, and the Edinburgh International Festival with pianists Alice Sara Ott and Simon Trpčeski. The Times commented that ​“This huge orchestra, radiating the robust vitality and commitment of youth, played with a high-fibre string ensemble, raw and reedy woodwind solos and a lithe energy that only increased with every movement. Karabits had the measure of the composer’s dramatic pacing and of the acoustic and appetite of an enraptured Usher Hall.”

Established by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in 2011, the I, CULTURE Orchestra is an ensemble of outstanding young musicians from Poland and the Eastern Partnership member states – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Moldova, Batiashvili’s native Georgia and Karabits’ native Ukraine. Since its inception it has completed four residencies as well as 29 concerts in 22 cities in 15 countries, bringing together over 500 musicians. Speaking about the orchestra, Lisa Batiashvili said: ​“I think music IS the language that brings peoples and nations together more than any other language. Working, traveling and performing together will certainly bring the participants of the I, CULTURE Orchestra closer, as they will get to know each other’s personalities better and better each day… This is the best basis for friendship between all these countries on the highest cultural level.”

HarrisonParrott is delighted to act as a consultant for the I, CULTURE Orchestra for the third time, and to manage the concerts in Berlin and Santander.