"Bari’s Carmine Church to host inaugural “Nikolaos” International Music Festival" by Carlo Coppola
On Wednesday, 8 April 2026 at 8pm, the Church of Maria Santissima del Carmine, in the heart of Bari’s old town, will host the opening concert of the inaugural “Nikolaos” International Music Festival. The event is free and open to the public.
Conceived as both a simple and ambitious initiative, the festival unfolds across three monthly concerts, all held in the same sacred setting and all free of charge. The aim is clear: to return classical and sacred music to the city at large, removing barriers to access. “This festival was born of a desire to guide audiences on an extraordinary musical journey, one that celebrates the cultural and traditional expressions rooted in Bari’s deepest identity,” explains the President of the Nikolaos Foundation. “A city which, through its devotion to Saint Nicholas, has long found its vocation in bringing together peoples, cultures and traditions.”
The festival is organised and promoted by the Nikolaos Foundation and the Opera Pia Maria SS. del Carmine ETS-APS, under the patronage of the Puglia Region, the City of Bari and several local institutions.
The choice of venue is far from incidental. The Carmine Church, with its Baroque nave and layered artistic heritage, forms an integral part of the experience. Just as Mount Carmel, in the Carmelite tradition, symbolises the encounter between humanity and the divine, so too does the festival’s interplay of music and art seek to guide audiences on a journey that is both spiritual and aesthetic. In the words of artistic director Oleg Vereshchagin, it is “a refined path in which sacred and classical music converge, offering audiences a profound emotional experience capable of nourishing both mind and spirit.” “We are delighted to launch this initiative, which brings our two institutions together under the banner of art and spirituality,” adds Giuseppe Mele, Director General of the Opera Pia Maria SS. del Carmine.
Opening the programme on 8 April will be Vereshchagin himself, a Russian-born accordionist who later became an Italian citizen. Born in Saransk, trained at the Kiriukov Music College and a graduate of Moscow’s Gnessin Academy, he has spent more than three decades building a career rooted in cultural dialogue between Italy and Russia. Further studies at the Bari Conservatoire—reflecting a longstanding connection with the city—and in Milan were followed by major accolades, including the Euterpe and Corelli competitions and the prestigious Gazzelloni Prize in Udine. Today, he is regarded as one of the foremost interpreters of the bayan, the distinctive Russian accordion of the twentieth century, performing on a unique instrument specially built for him by a leading Moscow manufacturer to his own technical specifications.
With this remarkable bayan, Vereshchagin will perform The Seven Last Words of Our Saviour on the Cross by Franz Joseph Haydn. Commissioned in 1786 and later arranged for orchestra under the extended title Musica instrumentale sopra le 7 ultime parole del nostro Redentore in croce, the work was always regarded by Haydn himself as among the finest of his output. Seven musical meditations on Christ’s final utterances—ranging from human anguish to quiet hope—will find in the voice of the bayan a deeply evocative resonance, rich in chiaroscuro. The instrument, rooted in the vastness of the Russian steppes, carries with it an inherently liturgical and introspective character.
The programme continues on 15 May, again with free admission, with violist Marco Misciagna presenting Viola Virtuosa, featuring music by Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber, Isaac Albéniz, Francisco Tárrega and Ennio Morricone. The festival concludes on 12 June with a duo performance by pianist Pierluigi Camicia and violinist Alessandro Perpich, offering “A Journey through Viennese Classicism and Romanticism” with works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Johannes Brahms and Edvard Grieg.
Three concerts open to all, tracing a stylistic arc of remarkable breadth—from the sacred music of the eighteenth century to the threshold of modernity. A gift to the city, offered in the very place where Bari rediscovers its memory and its deepest voice.
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