Roger Moore and John Malkovich at Julian Rachlin & Friends

www.rachlinandfriends.com

JULIAN RACHLIN & FRIENDS Festival -- An extraordinary fusion of art and friendship

It was love at first sight between Julian Rachlin and Dubrovnik , that made him come up with the idea of starting his own summer festival within a unique town core, the most beautiful music stage, and invite his friends. Cellist Mischa Maisky, pianist Itamar Golan, violinist Janine Jansen, and many other unique artists free themselves of all other obligations to join Julian in the never-ending quest for pure joy, be it in chamber music, theatrical events, performances with great orchestras like the St Martin in the Fields, the English Chamber and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra or simply spending time together, eating great food and swimming in the sea.

Sir Roger Moore, legendary actor of Bond movies and a UNICEF ambassador has been coming for many years to Dubrovnik, joining Julian and his friends for numerous projects, such as Carnival of the Animals. Sir Roger initiated Julian into becoming a UNICEF ambassador himself. In recent years Academy Award® nominee John Malkovich, has joined the team of friends and supporters of the festival and participated, among other projects, in "The Music Critic" conceived by Aleksey Igudesman, who also directed a movie about Julian's festival, which is due for release in 2011.

Among some of the other extraordinary luminaries of music who have appeared in Julian's festival are Daniele Gatti, Leonard Slatkin, Gidon Kremer, Yuri Bashmet, Maxim Vengerov, Alisa Weilerstein, Yefin Bronfman and world renown composer Krzystof Penderecky, who has been composer in residence, writing numerous compositions for Julian.

In the last decade the Festival «Julian Rachlin and Friends» has become a mandatory music and cultural event on the map of Europe. Both the unique nature of this music event and the town in which it is held are best described by Julian himself: 'The Festival in Dubrovnik represents an extraordinary fusion of art, friendship and synergy rarely seen anywhere else.'

This year's Festival JR&F, held from 1st to 12th September 2010 included 11 performances and also started a Violin Master class, which was led by the two renowned violin pedagogues Boris Kuschnir and Pavel Vernikov. Their pupils at JR &F, included the first prize winner of the Hannover competition Fumiaki Miura and BBC Young Musician of the Year winner and Deutsche Grammophone recording artists Nicola Benedetti.

The future years of the festival will feature more musicians, actors and friends of Julian Rachlin who will join him in his love for the city of Dubrovnik and for bringing music full of passion and inspiration closer to the people. Some of his new guests will include Orchestre De Paris and Paavo Järvi, as well as all the extraordinary artists who have joined Julian for now over 10 years in creating one of the most magical atmospheres in the world.

THIS CLIP USES MATERIAL FROM "Julian Rachlin 2008 - Music at the Sea" directed and produced by Georg Riha.