Credomatic Festival Celebrates 20 Years

Twenty years after its inception, Costa Rica’s Credomatic Music Festival keeps reaching new parts of the country.

Musicians from all over the world will arrive in the country next month for the 20^th annual Credomatic Music Festival, Aug. 7 to 22. Performances will be held in 25 different sites throughout the country, including new spots in Puerto Viejo, on the southern Caribbean coast, and Quepos on the Pacific.

“It will be a much bigger festival than the past ones,” festival director Jordi Antich said.

The premier music event strings together 16 consecutive days of classical music performances in a variety of venues, from lesser-known auditoriums and amphitheaters to grand stages like San José’s National Theater to the Hotel Cristal Ballena on the southern Pacific coast. Choirs, pianists, composers, guitarists and a cappella groups will participate in the festivities.

Antich was most excited to announce the return of the Vienna Boys’ Choir. Costa Rica’s Youth Symphony Orchestra will join the boys from Austria at a free concert that will close the festival on the promenade of La Aduana, in eastern San José’s Barrio La California.

The event was announced last Saturday at a press function at Hacienda Pinilla in the northwestern province of Guanacaste. However, a detailed schedule and prices have not yet been released.

Antich said a couple of the groups will be performing in English, including a cappella ensemble TENET from the United States. Another intriguing choice arrives from the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. The country’s National Steel Symphony Orchestra infuses steel beats and metal clangs to add a calypso vibe to classical music.

Other performers include award-winning Spanish quartet Albéniz, Korean chamber music group Jeong Ga Ak Hoe, German-Costa Rican duo Hanstedt-Schöpp, Spanish duo De la Torre-Ardévol, Russian pianista Kirill Gliadkovsky and Colombian ensemble Música Ficta.

Antich expects thousands of classical music fans to come out for this year’s festivities.

The festival seems to be gaining more and more significance as it grows, he said, acknowledging that the performers deserve the most credit for the festival’s strong displays over the past two decades.

“What’s most important to us is the high quality of these performances,” Antich said.

The festival’s schedule will be released soon; keep an eye on the Calendar pages.