1 april 2022
The Chairman and Founder of the Centre Européen de Musique, Jorge Chaminé, participated on 31st March 2022 in the webinar "Civil Society in Action for Ukraine's Endangered Heritage". An event co-organised by the Global Heritage Fund alongside OurWorldHeritage and Europa Nostra. This was an opportunity for Jorge Chaminé to recall, also, that the European cultural heritage of the Bougival Park of which the Centre Européen de Musique is today the guardian and heir, includes a major figure of Russian literature known throughout Europe and beyond: the man of Peace and great writer Ivan Turgenev.
''At a time when the Russian bombs are falling on Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities, when the harmful consequences of this war, waged by the will of a man, appear irreversible and project us on a return to the past, with speeches and actions that we believed behind us forever; at a time when the return of nationalisms and divisions, infiltrating societies increasingly divided by a "wokism" invading minds and condemning them to an increasingly Manichaeist and violent black and white vision, I can only grip your attention to an example often forgotten and sometimes despised: Music as a link.
A chain of solidarity for Ukraine
From the night of February 24, the Centre Européen de Musique established a chain of solidarity for Ukraine but, also, a dialogue between Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian musicians, those present in the theater of war but also those of the diaspora. We wanted to get out of the easy solution and, unfortunately taken by many, to condemn in particular Russian musicians going so far as to condemn Russian music, going so far as to ban Tchaikovsky from their programming. This seems to me at first an insult to intelligence but, above all, violence is added to violence, when violence is the major problem in our human history. That musicians had been complicit in a dictatorial regime, much more closed than that of the Soviet Union, justice will be done. But for us to condemn all Russian musicians and Russian music, one of the most remarkable in the history of European music, seems absurd to me to be a hasty generalisation. That is why we have invested ourselves in establishing a dialogue between the musicians of these three countries, to try to keep a dialogue weakened by events and that must be defended at all costs. The reaction on the part of these musicians exceeded all our expectations and, today, we have about forty musicians from the three nations, ready to go on stage and perform the music of their respective countries, all together. A season of concerts is underway!
Music is an instrument of Peace
Music is a link, and this was one of the essential paths of my life as a musician and today that of the Centre Européen de Musique. Music is an instrument of Peace and I am the privileged witness of this, in regions of the world that have been living for decades in the horror of war as is the case in the Middle East. But, also, in the partnership that we have established with the Afghan Institute of Music, because since the return of the Taliban, music is a criminal act that can condemn those who practice it to death. And here, too, we see the power of Music, the most human of the arts, which becomes a crime for religious fanatics and autocrats. The time has come, apart from any naivety, to be able to look reality in the face and respond to it with tools that are often forgotten, not to say despised by political-economic parameters that, in our opinion, are not sufficient. Music is this supplement of soul, as Yehudi Menuhin affirmed, the one who by the very essence of this art, can unite in diversity, can be a link between us, building a new living together. Let's put it at the heart of our societies! Let us hear it as a call to awaken in us the most beautiful of humanity: the otherness and respect that flows from it. To souls, citizens!! Aux âmes, citoyens !''
Jorge Chaminé, Chairman and Founder of the Centre Européen de Musique
1 april 2022
The Chairman and Founder of the Centre Européen de Musique, Jorge Chaminé, participated on 31st March 2022 in the webinar "Civil Society in Action for Ukraine's Endangered Heritage". An event co-organised by the Global Heritage Fund alongside OurWorldHeritage and Europa Nostra. This was an opportunity for Jorge Chaminé to recall, also, that the European cultural heritage of the Bougival Park of which the Centre Européen de Musique is today the guardian and heir, includes a major figure of Russian literature known throughout Europe and beyond: the man of Peace and great writer Ivan Turgenev.
''At a time when the Russian bombs are falling on Mariupol and other Ukrainian cities, when the harmful consequences of this war, waged by the will of a man, appear irreversible and project us on a return to the past, with speeches and actions that we believed behind us forever; at a time when the return of nationalisms and divisions, infiltrating societies increasingly divided by a "wokism" invading minds and condemning them to an increasingly Manichaeist and violent black and white vision, I can only grip your attention to an example often forgotten and sometimes despised: Music as a link.
A chain of solidarity for Ukraine
From the night of February 24, the Centre Européen de Musique established a chain of solidarity for Ukraine but, also, a dialogue between Ukrainian, Russian and Belarusian musicians, those present in the theater of war but also those of the diaspora. We wanted to get out of the easy solution and, unfortunately taken by many, to condemn in particular Russian musicians going so far as to condemn Russian music, going so far as to ban Tchaikovsky from their programming. This seems to me at first an insult to intelligence but, above all, violence is added to violence, when violence is the major problem in our human history. That musicians had been complicit in a dictatorial regime, much more closed than that of the Soviet Union, justice will be done. But for us to condemn all Russian musicians and Russian music, one of the most remarkable in the history of European music, seems absurd to me to be a hasty generalisation. That is why we have invested ourselves in establishing a dialogue between the musicians of these three countries, to try to keep a dialogue weakened by events and that must be defended at all costs. The reaction on the part of these musicians exceeded all our expectations and, today, we have about forty musicians from the three nations, ready to go on stage and perform the music of their respective countries, all together. A season of concerts is underway!
Music is an instrument of Peace
Music is a link, and this was one of the essential paths of my life as a musician and today that of the Centre Européen de Musique. Music is an instrument of Peace and I am the privileged witness of this, in regions of the world that have been living for decades in the horror of war as is the case in the Middle East. But, also, in the partnership that we have established with the Afghan Institute of Music, because since the return of the Taliban, music is a criminal act that can condemn those who practice it to death. And here, too, we see the power of Music, the most human of the arts, which becomes a crime for religious fanatics and autocrats. The time has come, apart from any naivety, to be able to look reality in the face and respond to it with tools that are often forgotten, not to say despised by political-economic parameters that, in our opinion, are not sufficient. Music is this supplement of soul, as Yehudi Menuhin affirmed, the one who by the very essence of this art, can unite in diversity, can be a link between us, building a new living together. Let's put it at the heart of our societies! Let us hear it as a call to awaken in us the most beautiful of humanity: the otherness and respect that flows from it. To souls, citizens!! Aux âmes, citoyens !''
Jorge Chaminé, Chairman and Founder of the Centre Européen de Musique
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