Prague, Dec 14 (CTK) – The Czech Philharmonic (CF) will keep cooperating with singer and musician Ida Kelarova and her Romany children’s choir Chavorenge and they will record a CD together, conducted by Jiri Belohlavek, next year, CF general director David Marecek told reporters on Wednesday.
The choir is comprised od talented children from socially excluded Romany localities or “ghettoes.”
The CF will cooperate with choirmaster Kelarova, whose father was a Romany musician, for the fourth year in a row.
They performed together at almost 20 concerts some of which were staged in Romany settlements in Eastern Slovakia. They also appeared at an open-air concert of the CF at Hradcany square outside Prague Castle, the presidential seat.
“Romany children lack the feeling of being welcomed in society. Their way out of the vicious circle of settlements and ghettoes in the world, where something is expected from them, where they can trust themselves and can achieve something, is one of the most difficult paths,” Kelarova said.
“Even if the energy we are putting into them does not bear fruit immediately. I believe there is hope for a change. The children’s choir Chavorenge is an environment that motivates children not to give up their dreams and goals and to follow the fulfilment of their life story,” she added.
Ida’s Mission (O co ide Ide), a documentary film directed by Tomas Kudrna, depicts the successes as well as challenges of some 40 Romany children from Chavorenge and theirs effort to escape the socially excluded localities. The film was shot in Eastern Slovakia during the Romano drom summer artistic school supported by the CF in 2015.
The Romano drom 2017 will be held in the Czech Republic again.
This year it took place in the North Bohemia borderland, while next August, about 60 children and youths will spend two weeks in the vicinity of Vsetin, north Moravia. The summer school will traditionally culminate with several concerts in towns and “ghettoes.”
“The Czech Philharmonic considers similar projects a significant part of its mission since it also, as Ida Kelarova says, cares for changing the world,” Marecek said.
