24th of March is the date of a charity concert held under the title United through Music, organized in the Auditorium Maximum Hall of Babeș-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napocaby Rotary Club Cluj-Napoca Hoia. Violinist Kirill Maximov and violist Nikia Gerkusov, members of Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna, are going to perform. Cellist Ion Storojenco, initiator of the project, gave us more details in the next interview.

On 24th of March you are going to perform in Cluj in a charity concert organized in support of the Chișinău Philharmonic, whose building was destroyed in a fire in September 2020. Where did the idea for this event come from?

The idea for this concert came as a result of the disastrous situation of the Chișinău Philharmonic. The orchestra lost the entire props, including two pianos, all the rostrums, chairs and, very tragically, the entire library, which amassed materials collected over several decades of activity. That is why we decided with the Rotary Club Hoia Cluj to do this charity project in which to support the restoration of this prop, so that the institution can continue to operate.

As you said, the fire destroyed, among other things, tools, the library, and the artists are now working in a temporary location. Can you tell us concretely in which direction the obtained funds will go?

The funds raised will be directed to the collection of library material and rostrums; there is an urgent need for chairs, necessary pieces of furniture, specific to the duties of an orchestra.

Violinist Kirill Maximov and violist Nikita Gerkusov will be on stage at the concert as soloists. Both are members of theTonkunstler Orchestra in Vienna, the city where you completed your studies. Have you collaborated in the past? How did they receive the invitation to participate in such an event?

They were very, very open to this collaboration. They will perform Mozart's Concert Symphony during the Musikverein season in Vienna, in December, in half a year they will perform the same program, and they were very open to performing it in Cluj. Our schedule has undergone minor changes following a fall we suffered a few days ago, and so Nikita Gerkusov will perform the Hoffmeister Concerto for viola and orchestra instead of the Haydn Cello Concerto which I was to perform. The next work will be Concert no. 5 by Mozart for violin, performed by Kirill Maximov, and at the end will be performed by the two Concert Symphony for violin and viola.