... and why not try it with 500 kids? Superar’s Artistic Director, Andy Icochea Icochea, needs just one gesture to hush all of the children on stage. During the concert rehearsal in the Wiener Konzerthaus, he doesn’t raise his voice, never once shouts “quiet!”. The Slovak children at the rehearsal don’t understand his German, but they still respond to his every word. He encourages them to emit strange sounds – “UAAAAuh”. They pretend to smell flowers, play with their hands as if they are untangling a cobweb. All these sounds, gestures, they might look random and meaningless, but they are part of well thought-through concept - they are an entry ticket to the children's world.
Andrej Barat, Pravda
At the end of February, Superar orchestras and choirs from Austria & Slovakia performed at a well-attended annual fundraising concert in the Wiener Konzerthaus, this year under the theme of Sing your Rights.
This theme was not just fitting in the light of global events, but in the immediate context of Superar activities over the last year, with Superar having recently spent time ensuring that the children learnt about their rights in the course of the development of a new child protection scheme.
When Children rule the World by Andrew Lloyd-Webber
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As the children from Superar Slovakia and Superar Vienna took to the stage together for the first time, Peruvian Conductor, Andy Icochea Icochea set the tone for an evening which celebrated not just children's rights but also diversity and internationality, with a trilingual introduction to the proceedings in German, Serbian and Turkish.
Indeed, both the constellations on stage and in the evening’s programme reflected the inherent diversity present within our societies and in all Superar and El Sistema projects, with 500 children of 29 mother tongues and 11 different confessions performing songs in Bosnian-Herzegovinian, English, German, Hungarian, Hebrew and Turkish.
Zoltán Kodály - Esti dal
Axel Chr. Schullz - Alle Menschen sind frei
Milan Prebanda - Vretska
Andy Icochea Icochea - Du und ich
Bob Chilcott - Can you hear me
Allan E. Naplan - Hine ma tov
Andrew Lloyd-Webber - When children rule the world
Bill Backer, Billy Davis, Roger Cook, Roger Greenaway - I'd like to teach the world to sing (in perfect harmony)
Bernie Mallinger - Dream caused by the flight of a bee around a pomegranate a second before awakening
Edvard Grieg - The last spring op. 34/2 (Zwei elegische Melodien für Streichorchester) (1881)
Peter Iljitsch Tschaikowsky - Serenade C-Dur op. 48 für Streichorchester (4. Satz: Finale (Tema russo). Andante – Allegro con spirito) (1880)
Salih Aydoğan - Bir dünya birakin
Leonard Bernstein - Somewhere.
And, there was a surprise in store for those in the audience who thought they had come to listen to the music, too. The large number of relatives in attendance were treated not just to the concert but to some unexpected first-hand insight into the training their children receive, with Andy Icochea Icochea temporarily expanding his choir to include the circa 1,500 guests in a 2,000-strong rendition of his Du und Ich (You and I), which - after a little bit of practice! - rang out not just from the stage, but from throughout the concert hall.
Later on, the pupils were also joined on stage by the fantastic radio.string.quartet, who performed Dream caused by the Flight of a Bee around a Pomegranate a Second before Awakening on instruments specifically created and auctioned to fund Superar during a four-day action (consisting of circa 700 hours of work!) in the Wiener Konzerthaus in 2016.
Photos from the concert
All photos courtesy and copyright of Marek Kapusta and Claudia Prieler
Use the arrows to scan the gallery
Yet, however many support acts were to be found on stage and in the audience, this evening belonged to the children and their conductor. Both before and after their encore, they were enthusiastically applauded for a sparkling performance entirely in keeping with the splendour of their illustrious surroundings. And, what's more, they had also proved once again that music can overcome borders.
For Marek Kapusta, Managing Director and Founder of Superar Slovakia, the way in which the children worked so well together and the speed with which they made friends - both on the day of the concert and at the general rehearsal - sent out an important message and, in a time in which borders are en vogue and there is increasing emphasis on the differences between us, reminded everyone present of our similarities, uniting people of all backgrounds and reuniting two sister cities with a long history which binds much more than it divides.
Alle Menschen sind frei by Axel Chr. Schullz
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1 - Alle Menschen sind frei und gleich
2 - an Würde und Rechte geboren
3 - Sie sind mit Vernunft und Gewissen begabt
4 - und sollten einander im Geiste
5 - der Brüderlichkeit
6 - der Brüderlichkeit begegnen
1 - Each and every one of us is free and born
2 - with the same rights and dignity
3 - We are blessed with conscience and reason
4 - and should greet each other
5 - in the spirit,
6 - in the spirit of solidarity
(This is an unofficial translation, intended to give a sense of the song to non-German/Slovak speakers)
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