The oldest and most prestigious cultural event in Zadar, the Musical Evenings at St Donatus Festival, has for six decades transformed the city into a vibrant centre of art and cultural dialogue.
This atmospheric music and stage festival is an internationally recognised brand presenting classical, contemporary, and early music through innovative formats and collaborations with other art forms. From 5 July to 6 August, the festival will celebrate its 66th edition, once again bringing life to Zadar’s historic squares, gardens, cultural landmarks, and heritage sites.
This year’s edition is inspired by the theme of stars and celestial phenomena, and more broadly, by the idea of the freedom of imagination. The festival will open under the open sky at the Roman Forum, in front of Zadar’s most iconic symbol the Church of St Donatus with performances of The Planets by Gustav Holst and the orchestral suite Star Wars by John Williams, performed by the Symphony Orchestra and Women’s Choir of Croatian Radiotelevision. Young actors from Zadar will join this cosmic journey by interpreting passages from The Little Prince.
The history of the festival is inseparably linked to Pavle Dešpalj, one of Croatia’s most distinguished conductors. His vision of transforming St Donatus into a unique concert venue and revitalising the Zadar orchestra fundamentally reshaped the city’s cultural identity. The Zadar Chamber Orchestra will perform two concerts this year, continuing its artistic and professional development. Their performance of Mahler’s monumental Symphony No. 4 speaks clearly of the orchestra’s ambition and artistic reach.
Balancing both global and local perspectives, the festival’s closing concert will commemorate the 300th anniversary of the arrival of the Arbanasi community in Zadar, celebrating the city’s most prominent musical family — the Dešpalj family.
This year’s programme features distinguished artists including the Zagreb Soloists, Monika Leskovar, Martina Filjak, Roman Simović, Danijel Detoni, Lucija Stilinović, Yevhen Churikov, Melita Ivković, Edin Karamazov, Marco Genero, Maria Grazia, Kajana Pačko, Airi Suzuki, Boris Kusnezow, as well as young award-winning musicians from the Città di Palmanova competition and the Ferdo Livadić competition.
The early music cycle continues to explore the vitality of historical music through contemporary interpretations by the instrumental ensemble Into the Winds and the Dutch vocal ensemble Cappella Pratensis. The festival’s CODA concert series presents artists working at the intersection of musical genres and artistic disciplines. In this context, the performance of the Croatian Radiotelevision Tamburitza Orchestra in Zadar will be almost historic, while original projects such as A Piece of Sky by Mangroove and Another Sun by the Maja Rivić Quintet symbolically reflect the festival’s celestial theme.
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