The first semester of the 2022/2023 year brought a wealth of musical experiences to our college and the community. It all started with a performance by our choir for the opening ceremony of our 40th anniversary, which happened on UWC Day. More than 40 students, faculty and staff joined their voices to perform the South African song Siyahamba and Mozart’s canon Dona Nobis Pacem at the beautiful and poignant memorial of Medea.
That was the start of a whole series of regular concerts, both by our students as well as professional musicians. Once a month we come together for a Concerto Musicale in which students and faculty share pieces of music with each other. In these concerts we hear a variety of performances, from accomplished instrumentalists and singers to students who share pieces from their own countries and cultures. We want to create an inclusive culture of music making where we want to encourage the students who perform at a professional level to perform alongside students who are at an intermediate level but who are passionate about and dedicated to their instrument. In addition to those concerts, students also come together every month for an open mic, where they share performances in a very relaxed and informal setting.
In September, the music teachers introduced themselves musically to our community by performing for our students and community. The Concerto Musicale in October supported the celebration of Black History Month. Students formed a choir to perform Michael Jackson’s Man in the Mirror and were subsequently invited to perform this song on a number of occasions in Trieste and Portopiccolo. Another poignant moment was the performance of the song Stand Up by Cynthia Erivo during one of our assemblies. The whole auditorium was accompanying our lead singer Anthony as he shared his incredible vocal talent with us. The Concerto Musicale in November ranged from piano pieces by Mozart and Debussy via a choir performance of the song Unruly Heart (to celebrate Pride Month), jazz piano by one of our faculty members all the way to the first and highly successful performance of our own a-cappella group, who sang Accidentally in Love by Counting Crows.
San Nicolò is always a major event in Duino. The piazza is closed to traffic and the entire community comes together to celebrate the lighting of the Christmas tree. The castello di Duino opens its doors and people gather in the courtyard. We were proud to have been invited to contribute songs performed by our choir and our a-cappella group. We proudly presented a Slovene Christmas carol alongside Silent Night and a performance by our a-cappella group. Afterwards everyone enjoyed the start of the Christmas season with mulled wine and chestnuts on the piazza.
The last musical highlight of the first semester was our Christmas Concert, which took place on December 13. It was a wonderful occasion to invite the local community into our college and to celebrate Christmas together.
Our orchestra performed Corelli’s Concerto di Natale and accompanied the choir in O Holy Night. Students had prepared their own arrangements of Christmas songs and performed alongside members of the faculty. But the evening was not just about enjoying music, a student from Jordan spoke about challenges connected with Christmas for him as someone from a muslim background, two students from Russia and Ukraine performed a dialogue they had written themselves about peace – a very emotional and poignant moment of the evening.
We finished the concert by performing the famous song Silent Night. Students wanted to share the song in their own language and in that one performance we had 16 different languages – a beautiful moment of connecting across borders, religions and languages.
The final phrase of this multi-language edition of Silent Night was sung in Armenian. As it happens, the Armenian phrase translates in English as Peace to the world. What better way to end the musical year at UWC Adriatic than singing those words together?
We wish you all a peaceful Christmas and Winter break and we look forward to many more musical highlights in the coming year.
