With Festivals for Compassion, festivals around Europe come together in recognition of the severe difficulties we collectively face in the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic. Greek-Dutch composer Calliope Tsoupaki is one of the Netherlands’ most celebrated composers. She was commissioned to create a new solo work for the festivals to present, which was premiered as part of Holland Festival on the Dutch NPO Radio 4 on 20 June.

Each festival selects their own artist and instrument to present the work with their own individual flair. Nikita Naumov has been Principal Double Bassist with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for ten years. In 2012 he was awarded second prize at the Koussevitzky double bass competition in St Petersburg. His regular solo performances include Hallgrímsson’s Sonnambulo for Double Bass with the Reykjavik Chamber Orchestra in Iceland, Koussevitzky’s Double Bass Concerto with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra on tour in Scotland and Rachmaninoff’s Vocalise with Lars Vogt at Heimbach ‘Spannungen’ Kammermusik Festival.

The recording of his performance will be available on our YouTube and the Festivals for Compassion website. After this, the work will continue its journey through Europe as the baton is passed from festival to festival.