ABU DHABI // The capital's biggest classical event, the Abu Dhabi Festival, opens this weekend with touches of the Globe Theatre and Carnegie Hall.
Performers affiliated with The Globe Theatre Company and Carnegie Hall will be showcasing their skills to help kick off the festival.
Organised by the Abu Dhabi Music and Arts Foundation (Admaf), the festival runs until April 4.
The London-based Globe's sold-out performances of Macbeth are scheduled to take place at Abu Dhabi Theatre on March 20 and 21.
The concerts by Carnegie Hall's Ensemble ACJW - the performing arm of a joint programme of Carnegie Hall, the Julliard School and the Weill Music Institute - are set for March 22 at the Zaha Hadid Pavilion on the Emirates Palace lawns, and on March 23 at the British School Al Khubairat.
The Ensemble ACJW performance comes shortly after Admaf signed an agreement with New York's Carnegie Hall this year to develop educational programmes and enter possible joint activities in which Arabic musicians would travel to America and vice versa.
The education programme of this year's festival includes a science-meets-theatre workshop performance for the first time. The Big Bang performances, called Punk Science Climate Change and Feel the Force, will incorporate mathematics and physics through the medium of performance, organisers said.
The workshop performances are expected to attract thousands of children from more than 250 schools.
The cellist Matthew Barley and his ensemble, Between the Notes, will return this year to lead the Young Artists' Day performance at Emirates Palace on March 26. An original composition, inspired by the traditional songs and music of UAE fishermen, will be written and developed by young participants.
Tickets can be purchased at www.timeouttickets.com, at the Emirates Palace ticket desk, or by calling 800 4669.
