The "Dr. Ermil Nichifor" Doctors' Orchestra and the Romanian National Choir will perform in the fourth edition of the "Harmonies of Hope" concert on Saturday, December 14th, 2024.

Mister Remus Nica, on Saturday, the "Dr. Ermil Nichifor" Doctors' Orchestra and the Romanian National Choir will perform at the fourth edition of the "Harmonies of Hope" concert. It is a project that offers help to cancer patients from Romania. What was your motivation when initiating these concerts and what were the results of these efforts?

The "Harmonies of Hope" project was born in 2022. It is an event dedicated to cancer patients, that was created simultaneously with the promotion of the Law for Cancer Patients. Why did we organise this event? Because we wished to get the civil society's attention, society from which patients also appear and come, because we wished to raise awareness about this disease that can be found in each of us, because we wished to make people see the doctor from the start in order to identify diseases early state, because we wished to tell people that these patients need all of us near them, to help and to support them, in order for them to return to us healthy.

The conductors, Daniel Jinga and Iosif Ion Prunner will be at the rostrum of the "Dr. Ermil Nichifor" Doctors' Orchestra and the Romanian National Choir this year too. Could you please tell us how the collaboration between the orchestra and the choir is going and who are the guests that are joining you in this concert?

In all of these years, the Doctors Orchestra was led by maestro Iosif Prunner and, for several years, at certain events, maestro Daniel Jinga also joined us. This Doctors' Orchestra event was put together in collaboration with the National Opera of Bucharest. The National Opera of Bucharest helped us organize this event and I can honestly say that without this invaluable help, it would have been impossible to create this event. And, returning to the Romanian National Choir, the ensemble is formed from the best voices from the Opera and from the "George Enescu" Philharmonic and was also created with the help of these two brilliant conductors; precisely Daniel Jinga and Iosif Ion Prunner. So, the Romanian National Choir was created with the occasion of the appearance of the "Harmonies of Hope" project. Regarding the participants from December 14th... This time, after the first three editions in which world-famous voices participated, we set out the goal to prove that we will have a very good musical future. I say this because there will be exceptionally talented children on stage. But, referring to those who will play the piano, the saxophone, and the trumpet, we will prove that the future is very bright.

How will you musically illustrate the title of the concert "Harmonies of Hope"?

From a musical point of view, in the first part we will singBolero by Maurice Ravel, we will continue with two works by Verdi. Later, the flautist Ionuț Bogdan Ștefănescu will enter the stage. After that, we will go through the music of Chopin's childhood, respectively the appearance of the little soloists on stage. And in the second part, after the opening song "The Force of Destiny" by Verdi, on the stage Ștefan Cazacu will delight us by playing at the cello several wonderful compositions. And towards the second's part ending, we will focus on waltzes, polkas, as we do for holidays, and in the end, as it is in every edition, will be played "O Fortuna!" from "Carmina Burana" by Carl Orff.