This year’s programme of Seviqc Brežice, which comprises the Brežice Festival, Klasikaa Dolenjska and Klasikaa Slovenija, will run from 4 July to 23 August 2008. The partner country for 2008 is France. Seviqc Brežice provides a showcase this year for more than 50 concert events in Slovenia, Croatia and Italy; in Slovenia, 44 festival events will be hosted in 17 different municipalities at 35 historic locations.

Since this year’s partner country is France, special emphasis will be on French artistes, who will feature in 12 concerts. We also anticipate the young, 10-piece Cuban group Ensemble Ars Longa, plus performers from Russia, Spain, the Netherlands, Italy, Switzerland, Sweden, Poland, Croatia, Belgium and Slovenia.

Seviqc Brežice, Semper Viva Quam Creata: always live as created, is a synonym in Slovenia for old music, being one of the biggest European festivals of old music and one of the most important cultural events in this country. Our programme seeks the participation of the most acclaimed local and foreign performers, with great attention paid to young talents, education and cultural tourism.

The emphasis in the 2008 programme is on Iacobus Gallus and Primož Trubar, two great Slovenes who made a marked contribution towards creating the image of Europe today.

We are members of the international association REMA, which includes 50 of the most prominent festivals of old music around the world. From 4 to 6 July 2008 we will be hosting the REMA forum in Slovenia.
 

We look forward to seeing you at the concerts of Seviqc Brežice 2008!

For ticket sales and reservations from 16 June 2008 every day from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. call 01 / 242 08 12 or e-mail: info@k-ramovs.si.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

I am honoured to have been asked, once again, to act as patron of honour to the Seviqc Brežice festival. This is particularly satisfying for me since I have been following the development of this project, important both for Slovene culture and for tourism, for many years – not least as a visitor to individual events.

I am sure that during their stay among us our guests will enrich our knowledge not only of their music but also of the places they come from. I have no doubt that they will enjoy themselves here with us, and that they will carry good reports of the festival events, of the places they have seen and the people they have met, back to their homelands, in this way helping once again to raise Slovenia's profile in their own countries. All of this is an excellent basis for intercultural dialogue, in this, the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue. For this reason I particularly welcome the signing of the Art Festivals' Declaration on Intercultural Dialogue, since festivals play a significant role in transforming a multicultural society into an intercultural society. This is a strategic step in the process of integration.

It is significant that this year's programme focuses on Jacobus Gallus and Primož Trubar, two great Slovenes who played a prominent part in creating the image of today's Europe, something which the Slovenes of today continue to do with sincerity and to the best of our ability. When this year's festival begins, Slovenia's six-month Presidency of the EU Council will be over. This has been a great opportunity for all of us, and one which – we can say this now – we have successfully exploited to raise the profile of Slovenia, its economy and its culture, in the European Union, and also more widely around the world. I trust that we will continue to be successful in this, thanks also to excellent cultural events such as the Seviqc Brežice festivals, to the satisfaction and advantage of peoples of various cultures, ethnic groups, religions, languages, beliefs and social origins, as stated in the Declaration mentioned above.

To all the organisers, artists and visitors to the events, I wish you a pleasant summer, full of pleasurable moments of good company and music.

Andrej Vizjak,
Minister of the Economy of the Republic of Slovenia

The year 2008 will retain a special standing at the heart of the French-Slovene diplomatic and cultural relationship, since our two countries will have held the European Union Presidency, each for six months. This year will also mark our common will to work towards intercultural dialogue.

It is also a true honour for France, in this year 2008, to be the invited partner country of the Brežice Festival, a festival whose reputation of excellence has already been established, and whose extraordinary importance I would like simply at this point to applaud.

Not only because its organizers have been able to select enchanting performance sites which showcase Slovenia’s history-laden heritage; but also because they have attracted musicians from all countries, of all ages, and of all languages.

And for those – myself included – who proclaim loudly that there is no “young” or “old” Europe, this diversity of scores, of performers and of interpretations naturally subscribes to the traditional desire common to the countries invited to the Festival: to assert ourselves as lands of meeting, of exchange and of creation.

The Brežice Festival, which also facilitates the circulation of talent, illustrates this conviction to which the European Union and France are fundamentally attached: culture (in this case, music) is truly at the heart of the future of the European project and of the happiness of its citizens. Thank you to the Festival for being an instrument of this great project!

Chantal de Bourmont
Ambassador of France to Slovenia.
 

Dear Visitors,

Welcome to the events of one of the most beautiful, biggest, and most renowned European festivals in a well established and successful tradition.

To host the members of our wonderful REMA association, the European Early Music Network, in Slovenia this year is a special pleasure for me. It means at least two things: the presence of an intelligent and sensitive audience for the Seviqc Brežice programme and a particular feeling for Slovenia as a friendly country with a rich cultural heritage. With great pleasure I greet all the artistic directors of the finest European festivals who attended our festival and showed their support of us. I wish you well, and I hope that this REMA forum will make a new contribution to the development of the music scene. I also want you to know more about our beautiful country.

With a great pleasure I also welcome all visitors, who are growing in number from year to year. This is the best sign that Slovenia is becoming more and more attractive as a cultural and tourist destination. How should we talk about the music performed in the ancient manner, as we discussed so many times at our REMA meetings? As we decided to keep the focus on early music, it is a pleasure to see so many young faces among all the visitors, not only at our festival, but also at the REMA festivals I have had the opportunity to attend. I am glad that the public shares an enthusiasm for early music, as "ecologically perfect" or, if I may say it this way, the "bio" performance of classical music.

In the European Year of Intercultural Dialogue, instituted by the EU for 2008, we, the art festivals, supported it with a special declaration. Without understanding each other, no art would exist – for all of us who are active in this field, borders of any kind are indeed strange. Borders are not only geographic, but sadly also a concept that can form more strongly in our minds. The possibilities of artistic creation are one of the basic human liberties and the privilege of our civilisation. A high level of culture is not only an indicator of citizens’ liberties, but a direct generator of personal and public wealth. Efforts towards a high level of culture have been made through the ages as direct support of the values of our civilisation.

I sincerely thank all of you who enabled our programme in many different ways, and I invite you to feel the utmost enjoyment at our concerts.

Klemen Ramovš
Artistic Director of Seviqc Brežice