Thinking back to the beginning of the beginning of the academic year 2023-2024, the first thought that comes to my mind is the incredible Opening Ceremony in Venice on September 30. It was a beautiful late summer’s day and when we left the College at 5 am in the morning, it was clear and crisp as the sun just came up. We travelled to the magnificent Ca’ Giustinian Palace in Venice where we officially started the school year in the presence of honoured guests such as Queen Noor of Jordan and Faith Abiodun, the Executive Director of UWC International. I will never forget how moved Queen Noor was when some of our students performed the famous Egyptian song ‘Helwa ya Baladi’ or the goosebumps when 60 and more of our students accompanied our second year student Iva Milas in her performance of the Croatian Klapa ‘Vilo Moja’. These were truly magical moments that quite literally set the tone for a semester filled with performances and especially music.
Come to think of it, the end of September saw us already in the midst of all our musical activities. We were very proud to welcome internationally acclaimed violinist and conductor Sigiswald Kuijken from Belgium to our auditorium on September 24 to delight us with an evening of Bach performed on viola da spalla and violin.
This recital was followed by the opening concert of our series Serate al Collegio where we come together once a month to share music, poetry and dances with each other, prepared and performed by faculty, staff and students. 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 continue to build an inclusive culture of music making where we want to encourage 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. Highlights of this first concert of the season were the choir singing the Zulu song ‘Amavolovolo’ and a Salsa dance performance.
The concert in October saw the introduction of a couple of new instruments in our musical landscape at the college. Adele from Italy performed on the harp and Jackson from the US delighted us with music played on the bassoon. The choir honoured Black History Month with a performance of Stevie Wonder’s ballad ‘Love’s in need of Love today’.
As much as I am delighted by the musical talent of our own students, we are also fortunate to be able to attend excellent concerts very close by. In September and October, the church of San Giovanni in Tuba (which is just around the corner from Duino) puts on weekly concerts on Monday nights and a great number of students enjoyed these performances, ranging from piano and violin recitals, to string quartets, medieval harps, experimental music. We are very grateful to Associazione Culturale Punto Musicale for these wonderful opportunities.
Our Serata al Collegio in November was again a truly colourful evening. The idea is to share not only musical performances and I was thrilled that we were able to enjoy a beautiful Tango dance performed by a group of students with live music. Another highlight was a poignant rendition of the song ‘Il Cielo in una Stanza’, where Angelo literally in the last minute replaced poor Elisa who had fallen ill that day. The best was saved for last though: a group of male students who modestly called themselves the ‘Gentlemen of Duino’ performed the famous song ‘Life could be a dream’ to the delight of the whole auditorium.
Our choir seems to be attracting attention in and around Duino. We were invited to perform at the Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony in Turriaco on Sunday, December 3. So we welcomed the first Advent of the year with nice Christmas songs, mulled wine (non-alcoholic of course!), pizza and cookies.
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 to honour and celebrate San Nicolo. We were proud to have been invited again to contribute songs performed by our choir and our a-cappella group. We proudly presented a Slovene Christmas carol alongside ‘Jingle Bell Rock’ and a performance by our a-cappella group. Afterwards everyone enjoyed the start of the Christmas season with mulled wine, chestnuts and (far too much) Panettone on the piazza.
Our annual Christmas Concert turned out to become a real highlight. It was also a great example of turning a challenge into an opportunity: our auditorium closed its doors due to some maintenance work and we needed to find another location for our concert. We were incredibly lucky to have the opportunity to perform our Christmas Concert at the Teatro di Monfalcone, a proper theatre with a big stage, a curtain, proper lights – all the things we don’t have in our auditorium. In such a wonderful setting, the concert was destined to become a great event that attracted an almost sold out audience, with guests from Duino, Monfalcone and Trieste. Of course there were performances of Christmas songs and music, there were dances and poems – all performed extremely well by students and faculty. Christmas is not only about singing happy songs and celebrating, sadly the problems do not stop for Christmas. In order to raise awareness about violence against women and to honour the victims of femicide in Italy and around the world, a group of female students gave a poignant performance of the poem ‘L’ultima’ by Cristina Torres-Caceres, which was a very emotional moment in the concert. Equally striking was a very moving speech by Lenny from Israel and Shueib from Palestine. They shared with us their dream and vision of a more peaceful world – something that is sadly missing in so many parts of our planet. I remember our Christmas Concert from 2022 when the last phrase we sang in the concert was the Armenian version of Silent Night. The last phrase of that song in Armenian translates as Peace to the world. It seemed so relevant last year – and sadly even more this year.
So, born out of a challenge, our Christmas Concert ended up being a most wonderful evening of music, dance, poetry and, above all, reflective thoughts and words to hold on to the hope that one day the world WILL be a better place.
UWC Adriatic would not be the place it is if we just stopped there! The very next day after our Christmas Concert, a group of students went to the magnificent opera house Teatro Verdi in Trieste to watch a beautiful performance of Mozart’s ‘Magic Flute’. As I was listening to the Queen of the Night singing her famous aria and watching the students enjoy the evening I could not help but feeling both happy and privileged to be living and working in this beautiful and peaceful part of the world, with so much art and music around us and with all these different people from such different backgrounds. It truly is an inspiration. And it provides hope. Every day.
