DAM Festival Pristina
DAM Fest was founded by back then art student, now well known TV producer, musician, journalist and manager of Kosovo's Philharmonic Orchestra, Dardan Selimaj.
The founders of the Music Art Center DAM were Dardan Selimaj, Yllka Rexhepi, Meriton Ferizi, Avni Krasniqi and Lule Ballata.
[3] Part of this festival was a theatrical play performed by the Lalish Theatre [4] of Vienna which took place on 5 April in the National Library.
Later on this year, a memorial concert honoring the figure of Luciano Pavarotti, one of the world's best operatic tenors, was organized by the Music Art Center DAM.
To mark the opening of this edition, 30 musicians executed the famous music work of the well known French composer, Erik Satie, Vexations.
[11] The 2008 edition of the festival, was attended by many special guests, among them the successful musicians Jan Pilch, Mendi Mengjiqi, Mojca Sedeu, Petrit Çeku,[12] Alexandre Dubach and Toshio Yanagisawa.
DAM Festival 2008 included 9 music concerts which took place in the Red Hall of the Palace of Youth and Sports in Pristina.
[16] The French duo Duel, made up of Laurent Cirade and Paul Staicu performed on the closing concert of this year's festival.
[18] More than 200 musicians participated in that year's festival, among them the famous Slovenian cellist Luka Šulić, part of the duo 2Cellos,[19] Albanian violinist Jonian – Ilia Kadesha and Kosovar percussionist Patris Berisha.
[25] DAM Festival 2011 started with the performance of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Kosovo, with the young and very talented conductor Alexander Prior[26] and the Chinese pianist Wu Qian, whereas the festival came to an end with the performance of the Jazz Duo, vocalist Rona Nishliu and pianist Gent Rushi.
British conductor, Alexander Prior, Italian pianist Maurizio Mastrini, Turkish soprano Pervin Chakar[27] were among the international performers.
Kosovar musicians participated in this event as well, such as violinist Visar Kuci, pianist Neritan Hysa, composer Liburn Jupolli,[28] mezzosoprano Ardiana Bytyqi[29] and flutist Ermira Citaku.
The Chloe Cailleton Trio, a mix of popular French music and jazz standard, took on the stage by serving to the audience a very spectacular performance.
This trio included the vocalist and percussionist Chloe Cailleton, Ronan Court in contrabass and Armel Dupas in piano, their performance reaching the climax in the second part of their piece.
[34][35] The Eighth DAM Festival started on 1 November 2013 and offered to the Kosovar audience three days of classical and innovative music performances.
Some of the most notable performances were brought on stage by Sudar Percussion, Flooder, String Quartet Pristina, Loja Laboratory Theatre, Kosovan DJs Dardan Ramabaja and Tonton and Nesim Maxhuni – Hip Bob Quintet.
The leader of the project was the founder of Ulfah Arts, Naz Koser, a Pakistani originating British women's rights activist inspired by personal tragedy due to religious extremism.
The stories of the interviewed women had given attributes to three main female figures in religion: Fátima, Saint Mary and Asya.
[45] The final product premièred as a post-DAM Festival 2010 event on 31 March 2010 in Oda Theater in Pristina, and the tour continued throughout the UK.
