Thirty-eight pupils from the Chios Music School sang with Berlin's Sing-Akademie ensembles at a 3 October service, part of an exchange backed by the Greek-German Youth Foundation, Euronews reports.
Some 240 Greek and German singers took part in a festive service at Berlin Cathedral on Saturday 3 October to mark German Unity Day, according to Euronews. The Greek contingent was made up of 38 pupils from the Chios Music School, who performed alongside choirs and ensembles from the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin under its artistic director, Kai-Uwe Jirka. The programme included works by Mendelssohn, Poulenc, Britten, Lewandowski and Holst, together with "Ora kali" by Michalis Adamis and "Messa Latina" by Yannis Christou.
The concert grew out of an exchange set up by the Chios Music Festival and the Sing-Akademie, supported by the Greek-German Youth Foundation. In August, during the festival's 10th edition, more than 50 young choristers from Berlin spent a week on Chios giving concerts at venues across the island; the Chios pupils then spent eight days in the German capital and took part in three concerts. Festival co-director Olga Holdorff Myriagou said the project opens doors for children on an island at the edge of Europe, while conductor Friederike Stahmer, who founded the Sing-Akademie girls' choir 20 years ago, said the young singers learned each other's songs and languages, which made the work demanding but rewarding.
After the service the singers moved to the cathedral steps overlooking the Lustgarten for "Sing for Europe!", where the choirs and the crowd sang together. Jirka told Euronews that the open-air singing began three years ago, when another event organised by a far-right party was taking place in the Lustgarten, and that the choirs wanted to use the space for a celebration of Europe rather than of Germany alone. Young participants quoted by Euronews described friendships formed in both cities, and one Berlin chorister said she hoped the collaboration could be repeated next year.
