Stift Festival

3 weeks have passed since the end of Stift, and words really fail me to convey my gratitude, delight, joy, excitement, emotions, and simply how much in awe I am of the extraordinary, boundless, inspirational musicians/magicians and amazing friends who lit up the stages of STIFT Festival over these last ten days!’ 🤩🔥🎶

And to our incredible dream-production-team, who this year more than ever made it all seem so effortless, so joyous, and so clearly done with at least the same passion as we try to convey on stage: THANK YOU!!!🙏🥂

35 concerts in numerous locations throughout Twente, extraordinary composers in residence Peteris Vasks, Marcelo Nisinman & Borys Fedorov, the brilliant Orkest Phion, over 30 world-class artists, six kick-ass young artists, eight premieres, over 80 AMAZING volunteers, countless moments of unforgettable emotional intensity, free spirited experimentation & seemingly effortless wizardry.✨

There were many more moments than I can begin to mention that made me deeply proud and deeply grateful for this boundless group of wizards, the Stift community, on and off stage.😍 There is far too much to say and say thanks for than can fit in one post, so there will be more in the coming days and weeks👌

From a sunny beach, were Maja and I are having just a couple of days of sunny downtime, I want to convey the greatest gratitude to everyone!!🙏🙏🥂

There will be a radio broadcast soon, several videos, more posts about the various aspects of the festival, and lots of GREAT photos thanks to the incredible eye of dear Șerban Mestecăneanu, who always manages to get under the skin of the festival🙏📸📻📽️(not easy to choose from over 1600 great shots…)

As (thanks of course to NH) this year’s festival T-shirt says: “Beauty is found on the edge of catastrophe.”

And I think we managed, mostly, to find some and to not to fall too often off the edge.☺️

Big hugs!😘🥂

Daniel