december 9, 2017 – Concert for Peace & Human Rights 2017

This year’s edition of the Concert for Peace and Human Rights will be conducted by the Symphony Orchestra of the Grand Theater of the Liceo and will also feature the participation of the renowned soprano Erin Wall and the mezzosoprano Huiling Zhu.

The Symphony Orchestra of the Gran Teatre del Liceu and its director Josep Pons, with the participation of the soprano Erin Wall and the mezzosoprano Huiling Zhu, will carry out on 9 December the Concert for Peace and Human Rights organized by the ONUART Foundation and produced by Mediapro, which retransmits it internationally from the headquarters of the United Nations. The event, which will be held this year in its fourth edition, will take place in the UN Human Rights Room, over by the great dome of Miquel Barceló, who conceived it as a metaphor for what the United Nations represents.

The relationship that gives rise to this meeting is the link between the Liceu, the teacher Pau Casals and the United Nations. Casals, cellist of the Gran Teatre at the age of 20 years, is the composer of the anthem of the United Nations, released on October 24, 1971 at the same time as the UN gave him the Medal of Peace. That is why the Theater Orchestra has a special honor in being part of this concert, which, with greater reason than ever, wants to claim peace among the peoples and to pay special tribute to the victims of the recent terrorist attacks in Europe, without forgetting those of Barcelona and Cambrils.

The Liceo began 4 years ago the Musical Plan – linked to the Strategic and Viability Plan 2014-2017 – with the axes of recovery, among others, the Orchestra. With the leadership of Josep Pons, the first orchestra created in the Spanish State, is in a clear process of consolidation and has returned to shine with recent productions such as Elektra or Götterdämmerung, thus ratifying its improvement.

Since 2014 this Concert has gained international relevance to claim human rights in the world. The last two years Daniel Barenboim directed the West Eastern Divan Orchestra under the dome of Miquel Barceló at the UN headquarters in Geneva. Juan Diego Flórez and Pretty Yende also starred in the concert that started this initiative in 2014, with the Harmony Symphony Orchestra directed by Pablo Mielgo.