For the tenth year running, the Association for Life and Peace has organized the concert that is traditionally also held in the Basilica of St. Catherine in the complex of the Nativity in Bethlehem.
The concert is repeated three times: on 19th December it was in Greccio, where St. Francis created the first nativity scene; on 21st December here in Bethlehem, in the Basilica of St. Catherine and on 22nd, it will be repeated in the temple of music in Jerusalem, Binyanei Hauma Theatre.
Bethlehem is already “putting on its Sunday best” for the birth of the Saviour. The preparations for the festivity can be seen everywhere and the concert “event” is also surrounded by the festive atmosphere.
This year, the Concert for Life and Peace is performed by the Italian Youth Orchestra of the school of Fiesole, which has been conducted in the past by illustrious names such as Muti, Abbado and Sinopoli. It is Maestro Nicola Paszkowski who conducts it today.
The audience included the Most Reverend Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custos of the Holy Land and H.E. Mons. Antonio Franco, Apostolic Nonce in Israel and Cyprus and the Apostolic Delegate in Jerusalem and Palestine.
The orchestra also accompanies seven Italian and international artists of worldwide fame.
Gabrielle Mirabassi, a jazz clarinettist who has the particularity of playing not only his instrument but accompanying his “voice” with movements of his body, almost like a dance. He entrances the audience who, in ecstasy, follow the notes of his clarinet which “dances” with him.
Giampaolo Pretto, the first flute, is impeccable and precise in his impassioned performance.
Floreada Sacchi, a harpist, delights the whole audience with her performance of the Passacaglia from Suite no. 7 by G.F. Handel.
Francesca Dego is a pretty and proficient violinist. In a Christmassy red dress, she can produce unique sensations with her violin, especially in her first performance of opus VIII no. 4 by Vivaldi, “Winter”.
Two young cellists: Miriam Prandi and Nemanja Stankovic.
The accordionist Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi who, with his performance, is able to give a touch of movement to the concert, thanks also to the arrangements by the very young Fabio Canocchiella, who was nineteen on 22nd December. Although very young, he is so talented as to be already very well known in the world of classical music and he wrote the arrangements for Somewhere, taken from West Side Story, and sung by the soloist Arab-Israeli Mira Awad, with her vocalist Amiram Eini, closing the performance amidst the applause of the audience, greatly moved by the concert.
It really was a lovely evening, where it was not rhetorical speeches that spoke about peace, but the universal language of music, a language that this evening united an audience that speaks different languages and which united on three evenings audiences from three different lands: Italy, Palestine and Israel.
Marco Gavasso
The concert is repeated three times: on 19th December it was in Greccio, where St. Francis created the first nativity scene; on 21st December here in Bethlehem, in the Basilica of St. Catherine and on 22nd, it will be repeated in the temple of music in Jerusalem, Binyanei Hauma Theatre.
Bethlehem is already “putting on its Sunday best” for the birth of the Saviour. The preparations for the festivity can be seen everywhere and the concert “event” is also surrounded by the festive atmosphere.
This year, the Concert for Life and Peace is performed by the Italian Youth Orchestra of the school of Fiesole, which has been conducted in the past by illustrious names such as Muti, Abbado and Sinopoli. It is Maestro Nicola Paszkowski who conducts it today.
The audience included the Most Reverend Father Pierbattista Pizzaballa, Custos of the Holy Land and H.E. Mons. Antonio Franco, Apostolic Nonce in Israel and Cyprus and the Apostolic Delegate in Jerusalem and Palestine.
The orchestra also accompanies seven Italian and international artists of worldwide fame.
Gabrielle Mirabassi, a jazz clarinettist who has the particularity of playing not only his instrument but accompanying his “voice” with movements of his body, almost like a dance. He entrances the audience who, in ecstasy, follow the notes of his clarinet which “dances” with him.
Giampaolo Pretto, the first flute, is impeccable and precise in his impassioned performance.
Floreada Sacchi, a harpist, delights the whole audience with her performance of the Passacaglia from Suite no. 7 by G.F. Handel.
Francesca Dego is a pretty and proficient violinist. In a Christmassy red dress, she can produce unique sensations with her violin, especially in her first performance of opus VIII no. 4 by Vivaldi, “Winter”.
Two young cellists: Miriam Prandi and Nemanja Stankovic.
The accordionist Mario Stefano Pietrodarchi who, with his performance, is able to give a touch of movement to the concert, thanks also to the arrangements by the very young Fabio Canocchiella, who was nineteen on 22nd December. Although very young, he is so talented as to be already very well known in the world of classical music and he wrote the arrangements for Somewhere, taken from West Side Story, and sung by the soloist Arab-Israeli Mira Awad, with her vocalist Amiram Eini, closing the performance amidst the applause of the audience, greatly moved by the concert.
It really was a lovely evening, where it was not rhetorical speeches that spoke about peace, but the universal language of music, a language that this evening united an audience that speaks different languages and which united on three evenings audiences from three different lands: Italy, Palestine and Israel.
Marco Gavasso