Piran - The 21st Tartini Festival will start in the seaside town of Piran tonight with a concert by I Solisti Veneti at Minorite Monastery dedicated to the 330th birth anniversary of the Piran-born composer Giuseppe Tartini (1692-1770). Another highlight will be a performance by Italian violinist Fabio Biondi on Wednesday.

Running until 9 September, the festival will feature eleven concerts, including two under the Tartini Junior offshoot.

The acclaimed Italian chamber orchestra I Solisti Veneti will perform Tartini, Richard Strauss and Arnold Schoenberg.

Biondi, considered one of the premier contemporary violinists, will perform together with the chamber orchestra Lorenzo Da Ponte in what will be the highlight of this year's festival, the organisers said.

The festival will wrap up with a performance by Italian violinist Gianpiero Zanocco, Czech violinist Iveta Schwarz and German harpsichordist Konstantin Hiller.

After two decades, Tartini Festival is now well established and attracts many lovers of classical music from Slovenia and abroad every August and September. This year it is part of the wider Tartini 330 project in honour of the anniversary, the organisers added.