Welcome to the 25th Prix Marulić!

One of the concerns our prominent colleagues who initiated the PM festival back in 1997 had was certainly how the refined ears of the professional community would accept the novelty of moving listening sessions from studios to outdoor spaces. However, such an innovative approach quickly drew attention and positive feedback and resulted in nineteen program applications to our first edition 25 years ago. Good news also spread fast so 10 years later we were required to introduce pre-selections, while today we may proudly announce that we have received and listened to over 1000 program proposals from more than 100 production companies over the years. For that, we express our gratitude to radio authors from all continents.

I believe that, especially today, we must cherish and develop the sensibility for our past to come to better terms with our present. And the magnificent City of Hvar knows everything about cherishing the past and heritage, which has made them such a splendid and precious partner over the years. Since 1997, this beautiful, magical place has been a profound counterpart to the wisdom of old texts and heritage presented in our programs. I would like to express our deepest gratitude to the City of Hvar for supporting us all these years and helping us to be here again.

As such this is a kind of return to normality. But what is “normality”? Can we have any “normality” after all we have been through the past two years?

Shakespeare lived his entire life in the shadow of bubonic plague. On April 26, 1564, in the parish register of Holy Trinity Church, in Stratford-upon-Avon, the vicar recorded the baptism of one “Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakespeare.” A few months later, in the same register, the vicar noted the death of Oliver Gunne, an apprentice weaver, and in the margins next to that entry scribbled the words “hic incipit pestis” (here begins the plague). A fifth of the town’s population died in this outbreak. Following strict quarantines and a change in the weather, the plague waned and life in Stratford took its normal course. But it was back a few years later – laying waste to cities and towns-terrifyingly contagious. Sound familiar?

Having just learned to perhaps survive the new plague Covid19, we now have a vicious war in Europe -we fear for the innocent and oppressed and pray for their deliverance. Although it may seem that we are helpless we can take on the only arm we can – our hope and creativity, our joy and diligence. Celebrateing Drama and Sound. In spite of and because of.

It’s 25 years and we have had works of every stripe you can imagine: classical adaptations, or startling re-thinkings, architecture and purely imaginary works, music and noise, acoustics and cities, evolution and devolution, anthropology and talking insects, probing psychology and works illustrating the naïve – and we'll have many more.

Here’s to 25 more years of great listening!

Adriana Kramarić
Prix Marulic Artistic Director