TEHRAN – Iranian tenor Reza Fekri will appear as a soloist at the opening ceremony of the KotorArt International Festival in Montenegro on July 13.

The KotorArt International Festival, held annually with the support of Montenegrin cultural institutions and under UNESCO supervision, is considered one of the most important artistic events in the Balkans and Southeast Europe, hosting prominent classical musicians from around the world.

According to the festival program, this year’s opening concert, titled “TRAJANJE,” will take place in the square in front of St. Tryphon’s Cathedral. The program will feature Triptihon, a significant work by the renowned Croatian composer Ivan Brkanovićk, ILNA reported.

In the performance, the Bokel Symphony Orchestra and the Academic Choir Ivan Goran Kovačić will take the stage. The large ensemble will be conducted by Maestro Mladen Tarbuk, and alongside Reza Fekri (tenor), other distinguished soloists, including Mihaela Kristina Mlinarić (soprano) and Krešimir Stražanac (baritone-bass), will perform.

Born in Tehran, Reza Fekri, 33, has studied accounting while simultaneously studying music privately. Among his teachers are singers Göksay Yaran and Hüseyin Likos, conductor Alireza Shafaghinejad, composer Idin Samimi Mofakham, and other musicians. 

He has worked in the choirs of the Tehran Symphony Orchestra and the Alborz Symphony Orchestra, to name but a few; subsequently, he began a solo career. Recently, he graduated from the University of Zagreb Academy of Music.

His repertoire includes the tenor roles in Orff’s “Carmina Burana,” Dvořák’s “Requiem,” works by Mozart, Rossini, Schubert, Donizetti, Verdi, and Bizet, among others, including Iranian composers.

The singer has collaborated with conductor and composer Ali Rahbari, performing the tenor parts in his symphonic poems “Alamdar,” “West-Eastern Divan” by Goethe, and poems from the cycle “My Mother Persia,” as well as the role of Isaac in the opera “Abraham” and the role of King Khashayar (Xerxes) in the opera “Persian’s Tragedy”. 

In March 2022, Fekri was the soloist at the world premiere of Rahbari’s symphonic poem “Also sprach Zarathustra Spitama” in Zagreb, and in September of the same year – at its Russian premiere, which took place at the Mariinsky Theater. In that year, he appeared in a gala concert at the Helikon Opera in Moscow, held as part of the Cultural Program of the 2nd Caspian Economic Forum.

Since its founding in 2002, the KotorArt International Festival has focused on music and, since 2009, on numerous other artistic disciplines. 

KotorArt has been developing the brand of the city of Kotor for 24 years, making it recognized in the country and region for the exclusivity and top artistic level of its programs.

SS/SAB