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Date: Sat, 5 Nov 2022
Link: http://www.revijaglasna.si/novice/koncert-za-mir-simfonicnega-orkestra-cantabile/
4 November 2022 “Faced with the horrors of the war that has flared up in Ukraine, we, the musicians of the Cantabile Symphony Orchestra, send through music a call for peace to all who are willing to listen and hear it.”
To perform the programme of this concert, with the help of conductor Živa Ploj Peršuh, they invited young musicians from Ukraine who fled to Slovenia from the horrors of war to take part. A special place was also given to the outstanding young violinist Sofia Kysliak from Ukraine, who, accompanied by the symphony orchestra, will perform a piece from the film Schindler’s List in memory of and tribute to all the victims of the Nazi rampage in the Second World War.
“The evil that every war brings calls for reflection and purification. The piece Religioso, a work by Slavko Osterc, urges us to reflect and to seek the purification without which there is no peace.”
The main weight of the programme, however, is given to the performance of the 50-minute Third Symphony by the composer Mikolaj Gorecki, which holds a special place in the world’s treasury of classical anti-war music. The Polish composer wrote it in response to the horrors of the Second World War and directed its edge towards a message of peace. In the first movement he used the lament of Mary, mother of Jesus, from the Holy Cross monastery, from the Lysagóra Songs collection of the second half of the 15th century. Particularly harrowing is the text of the second movement, with the words written as a prayer on the wall of cell no. 3 in the Gestapo prison in Zakopane by 18-year-old Helena Wanda Blazusiakówna on 26 September 1944. In the third movement the composer used a Silesian folk song about a mother and son, which in its final verse asks: ‘Why did you kill my beloved son?’
The concert will be conducted by Marjan Grdadolnik, Tone Kuntner will contribute spoken word, and the soprano Mojca Bitenc will sing the solo part in the symphony. The concert will be held first in Logatec in the sports hall and then in Ljubljana in the Church of St Joseph, on 5 and 6 November 2022. The voluntary contributions collected will be used to help young musicians who have found a safe refuge in Slovenia from the war in Ukraine.
The honorary patron of the concert is the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Borut Pahor.
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA CANTABILE first appeared before an audience in spring 2011. It was founded on the initiative of Professor Marjan Grdadolnik and its founding members. After more than ten seasons it has become well known at home and abroad and boldly devises new programmes. Both top-class artists and promising young instrumental soloists have performed with the orchestra as soloists.
The project Music for the Future as a herald of peace, humanity and the idea of European integration
MUSIC FOR THE FUTURE is the title of the artistic and humanitarian project with which the organisation The Slovenian Youth Orchestra proved that the process of integrating refugees from Ukraine is also possible through the arts. Especially when it involves a group of people who are active in the same field and consequently share the same needs and life and professional prospects. They used the power of music to connect the young newcomers with our community, introduced them to the public through concerts and organised them into a symphony orchestra – as a key form of activity, cooperation, connection and integration.
From 6 March 2022 until today they have evacuated 142 young musicians and their companions (mothers) and integrated most of them into our living environment. Today these young people are being educated here, enrolled in primary and secondary music schools and at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana. All of them have attended Slovenian language courses from the start and, after half a year in Slovenia, are practically independent.
