Summer Magic of Classical Music is a long-standing summer festival of the Split Music Youth that has gradually grown into an important cultural event in the city of Split. The festival aims to enrich the concert and cultural offerings of the city during the summer months, providing citizens and their guests with top-notch musical experiences in ambient spaces in the heart of Split.

As in previous years, this year's thirteenth edition of the festival continues its primary focus - collaboration with young musicians. Additionally, the festival fosters international cultural cooperation and this year collaborates with artists from Austria, Slovenia, Canada, and Norway.

The festival would not exist without the collaboration of the Split Music Youth, the main sponsor, the Tourist Board of the City of Split, and the hosts in the beautiful spaces of the Museum of the City of Split. The program runs from mid-June to the end of September, featuring eight concerts, six in the cellars of Diocletian's Palace, and two in the newly renovated Old City Hall managed by the Museum of the City of Split.

Location: Old City Hall (Narodni trg)

Date: September 20, 2024, starting at 8:00 PM

The Omiš Baroque Ensemble and Sonja Runje - an evening of baroque music by local and foreign composers, performed on harpsichord, oboe, cello, with guest artist.

The performers are established Croatian artists: Borna Barišić (harpsichord), Ana Mandić (oboe), Hillary Karuza (cello), and guest Sonja Runje.

Sonja Runje's coloratura alto has been acclaimed as one of the most beautiful baroque voices of today. Internationally renowned for her agile and warm voice, as well as virtuosic technique, she specializes in baroque music. As a concert soloist, she has appeared on stages such as Concertgebow Amsterdam, Cologne Philharmonic, Tchaikovsky Philharmonic in Moscow, Salle-Seine in Paris, Felsenreitschule in Salzburg (Salzburg Festival), Megaro Mousikis in Athens, Musiikkitallo in Helsinki, and others, as well as opera stages from England across Europe to Russia.

During the 2022/23 season, Runje performed the role of Caesar in Handel's opera "Giulio Cesare in Egitto" at the Cologne Opera, Griselde in Bononcini's opera "Griselda" at the Bayreuth Baroque Festival, Calypso in Porpora's opera "Polifemo" at the Wiesbaden Opera, Erenice in Caldara's opera "Il Venceslao" at the Theater an der Wien and the Mijekse Theater, Achelooa in A. Steffani's opera "La lotta d’Ercole con Acheloo" at the Theater an der Wien, and Flore in Caldara's oratorio "Il nascimento dell’Aurora" at the Bayreuth Baroque Festival, where she also held a solo concert of Bononcini's cantatas.

In the 2023/24 season, she can be heard in the role of Teodata in Handel's opera "Flavio" (Theater an der Wien), Erenice in Caldara's opera "Il Venceslao" (Opera Herne), Egea in Handel's opera "Teseo" (Handelfestival Halle, Opera Wroclaw), Angelo di Giustizia in Galuppi's opera "La caduta di Adamo" (Musiikkitalo Helsinki, Theater an der Wien), and Bradamante in Vivaldi's opera "Orlando Furioso" (Bayreuth Baroque Festival).

Among the numerous opera roles she has performed so far, she highlights more recent ones: Amadigija in Handel's opera "Amadigi di Gaula" (Oxford), Tolomea and Cornelia in Handel's "Giulio Cesare in Egitto" (St. Gallen, Rijeka, Savonlinna, Ljubljana), Disinganna in the scenic version of Handel's oratorio "Il trionfo del Tempo e del Disinganno" (Montpellier, Mainz), Bradamante and Alcina in Vivaldi's opera "Orlando Furioso" (Moscow, Paris, Athens, Dortmund), Sorceress in Purcell's opera "Dido and Aeneas" (Helsinki, Rijeka), Calipso in Porpora's opera "Polifemo" (Bayreuth, Salzburg, Vienna, Amsterdam, Moscow), Isabella in Rossini's opera "The Italian Girl in Algiers" (Kirchstetten), and others.

She often performs as a concert soloist and has a wide repertoire of cantatas and oratorios, including: Mass in B minor, Christmas Oratorio, and St. Matthew Passion by J.S. Bach, Dixit Dominus and Messiah by G.F. Handel, Stabat Mater and Gloria by A. Vivaldi, Stabat Mater by G.B. Pergolesi, Requiem and Missa Brevis by W.A. Mozart, Elijah and A Midsummer Night's Dream by F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, Nelson Mass by J. Haydn, Christmas Oratorio by C. Saint-Saens, Croatian Mass by B. Papandopulo, Petite Messe Solennelle by G. Rossini, Requiem by M. Durufle, Symphony No. 2 by G. Mahler, Symphony No. 9 by L. van Beethoven, Winterreise by F. Schubert, among others.

She graduated with honors in solo singing from the Music Academy in Zagreb in the class of Martina Gojčeta Silić, after which she continued her studies with Eva Blahova in Bratislava.