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This year's artistic season concluded with a strong message of friendship and cooperation 01 July 2025

The Thessaloniki State Symphony Orchestra, the Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra and the Philharmonic of the Republic of North Macedonia joined forces on stage for the second time this year, to perform Carl Orff’s masterpiece ‘Carmina Burana’, conveying a powerful message of friendship and cooperation between peoples. The beginning of this partnership took place in February at the National Palace of Culture in Sofia and on Monday, June 30, it was Thessaloniki’s turn, to a packed Concert Hall, for a dazzling evening that 250 artists from the 3 neighboring countries united to offer the city’s audience. The conductor was Michalis Economou, while lyrical singers from the three countries participated, such as soprano Ana Durlovski (North Macedonia), countertenor Nikolas Spanos (Greece) and baritone Ivo Yordanov (Bulgaria). They were joined by three choirs from Greece and Bulgaria: the National Philharmonic Choir of Bulgaria, taught by Tsvetan Krumov, the Choir of the Department of Music Science & Art of the University of Macedonia, taught by Maria-Emma Meligopoulos, and the Children-Youth Choir of the Church of Saints Cyril and Methodius, taught by Elpida Tsami. The concert was held with the funding of the Ministries of Culture of Greece and Bulgaria, within the framework of the program "Thessaloniki-Sofia: Balkan Cultural Bridge".
In his opening speech, the Director of the TSSO, Simos Papanas, stated that everyone was very happy and moved to see such a large turnout at this important event and welcomed the colleagues from Bulgaria and North Macedonia to this impressive celebration of music. This joining of forces of all these artists, as well as friends, as he emphasized, creates a unique musical experience. He then said characteristically: “The power of music extends far beyond sound. Personally, I am a violinist and when I travel with my violin case, I often hear a bad joke. People point to my violin case and ask if this is a weapon. There are many reasons why this is a bad joke. The most important thing is that there is nothing funny about weapons. And of course, a musical instrument does not have the raw power of a weapon. But when used properly, it has this magical power to render a weapon useless. And tonight, we all join our voices to shout loudly that we dream of a world with more musical instruments and fewer weapons. We live in a world in which war is spreading dangerously and common sense is becoming dangerously irrational. Let us remember that war is the ultimate failure of humanity. It means that we have failed miserably to communicate with each other and the only way we have found to resolve our differences is to kill each other. Here in the Balkans, we learned this the hard way. We are all here today to remind ourselves that our differences are utterly insignificant compared to all the things that would unite us and all the things we share together. And as we watch the true friendship blossom between the musicians and staff of our orchestras, as we share this stage tonight, perhaps tomorrow on the beaches of Halkidiki, we must not forget how precious and fragile the peace and freedom we enjoy is. I would like to warmly thank my colleagues, Mustafa Imeri, Director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of North Macedonia and Nayden Todorov, Director of the Sofia Philharmonic, for sharing this vision and making this concert possible. I would also like to thank our Ministry of Culture for supporting our project "Balkan Cultural Bridge" and for the open mind it had in being with us by financially supporting all this music that is being produced. And, of course, I want to thank all of you for being here with us in such large numbers tonight. This means that our dream is not only ours, but you share it too."

      
 

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