Iași hosts the 15th International Mechanical Music Festival from 18 to 20 September 2026. It is organised by the Ștefan Procopiu Science and Technology Museum, part of the Moldova National Museum Complex. The programme combines exhibitions, a symposium, barrel-organ performances, concerts, dance, animation and videomapping.

The official opening is scheduled for Friday, 18 September at 11:00 in the Henri Coandă Hall of the Palace of Culture. According to the FIMM website, greetings from officials will be followed by the presentation of participants from Romania and abroad, a choreographic moment by the Alice Tudurii Academy children’s club, and a four-hands piano recital of arrangements from George Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No. 1 and Constantin Silvestri’s Romanian Dances from Transylvania. The pianists listed are Andrei Enoiu Pânzariu and Juan Jimenez Vînău of the Octav Băncilă National College of Art.

From 12:00 to 17:00, visitors can see the FIMM 15 exhibitions at the museum. Announced themes include the history of the tape recorder, from the Remus Comis donation, mechanical musical instruments from the museum collection, and Ana Alexoaie Conache’s artwork “The Machinery of Silence”. Short barrel-organ performances are also scheduled during the same hours.

A symposium on the history of mechanical music and the conservation and restoration of musical automata is listed from 15:00 to 18:30 at the Palace of Culture. On Friday afternoon, between 16:00 and 19:00, barrel-organ performers from France, Slovenia, Slovakia, Poland and Romania are billed on the palace esplanade and in Palas Public Garden.

The festival’s official page also records broader participation, including Germany, Czechia, Hungary and the Republic of Moldova. The event is aimed at barrel-organ players, collectors, researchers, museum staff and anyone interested in instruments that reproduced music mechanically before the digital era.

Friday evening closes at 19:30 in the Voivodes’ Hall with the Gavriil Musicescu Academic Choir of the Moldova State Philharmonic in Iași. The programme continues on Saturday and Sunday, including free exhibition hours as announced, a vintage tram ride on the Târgu Cucu–Copou route and a piano recital by Daniel Dascălu. Times and venues should be checked on fimm.ro before travelling.

Image: Danmariciuc, Wikimedia Commons, public domain. Palace of Culture, Iași, aerial view, not the 2026 FIMM opening. Cropped to 16:9.

Source consulted: Festivalul Internațional al Muzicii Mecanice — program oficial FIMM 15, 18–20 septembrie 2026.