The Kosovo Chopin Association was established in 2009 and organised the Chopin Piano FEST Prishtina in 2010 to honour the 200th anniversary of Chopin’s birthday. The 2011 Chopin Piano FEST Prishtina (12-24 April) dedicated its concerts to the 200th anniversary of Franz Liszt. It brought together pianists from Kosovo, Germany, Austria and also Argentina. 17 Kosovo artists participated in the festival; it was an opportunity to promote two new music works composed by two young Kosovo composers. The Festival was supported by the Ministry of Culture. On this occasion, Minister Memli Krasniqi argued that although the support from his Ministry is often limited, the necessity to support festivals like this goes along with the mission of the Ministry itself – to encourage and promote its own artists and present to the Kosovo public global artistic values. The evening dedicated to the 200th anniversary of Franz List was organised in cooperation with the Hungarian Embassy in Kosovo. Holding the current Presidency of the European Union, Hungary is proud to promote a real European value such as the works of Franz Liszt, who was known to say of himself that he is the artist of the future. That evening, “the Kosovo future”, its young and promising pianists, performed in front of a full house of enthusiastic audience. During a meeting with piano player Martha Noguera from Argentina, who participated in the Chopin Piano FEST, Enver Hoxhaj, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Kosovo, underlined that art and culture have an important role in strengthening links between nations. He said that art and diplomacy can mutually help one another to bring artists as well as citizens and institutions closer to one another, but also to strengthen relations and exchange between them. Minister Hoxhaj said that Kosovar diplomacy is concentrating on strengthening relations with all peoples and states in the world, and considers the role of cultural and artistic exchange as an extremely important and effective way of achieving this objective. The Kosovo Chopin Association is a non-profit organisation created by Kosovo's musicians, pianists, composers and students who are eager to promote the Kosovo’s artistic life as well as pianism and more specifically the performance of Chopin works. Through the Chopin Piano FEST, it also aims to motivate Kosovar composers to compose piano pieces for school children by announcing every year the Compositional competition with the motto “Honoring Chopin”. With this initiative, the Association aims to have an increase of piano literature for piano students composed by Kosovar composers. Related links: • Interview with piano player Martha Noguera from Argentina