The successful German cellist Maria Kliegel recently participated in the Swedish Aurora Winter Festival in Trollhättan, some 90 kilometres north of Gothenburg. The Aurora Festival is the first event ever dedicated to the Northern Lights and is a celebration of science, myths and life under the Aurora Borealis. It allows guests the chance to get involved with experiments and hands on activities covering everything from the source of the Northern Lights, to forecasting the aurora and the traditional Sami culture. The Aurora Festival in Trollhättan, has been organized for 10 years now, and each year there are about 3 to 4 festivals, which means from the beginning until now about 30 festivals have alltogehter taken place, with many concerts. This year's Aurora Winter festival was held from the 19-28 of February. Maria Kliegel, who is nicknamed “The Cellissima”, was invited by the organizers of the Aurora Festival, Artistic Director and cellist Per Nyström and General manager Ola Larsson, to play in two concerts, an invitation which she gladly accepted. Kliegel's performance was just one highlight in a sparkling programme. Maria enthuses: “I played three pieces in two concerts. First I played the Mendelssohn Octet, a beautiful piece, moreover because Mendelssohn  was only 16 when he composed it.  It was a piece for four violins, two violas and two cellos, it was fantastic, so youthful and powerful like the Midsummer Night’s Dream Scherzo of Mendelssohn. It was sparkling music."   "It was a huge, international music festival." "The Artistic Director Per Nyström was the other performing cellist. The piece is very famous, it is... Read more