Credit: Alfonso Salguiero Lora

Last Thursday 14 December 2017 marked the 42nd edition of the SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde’s annual Christmas Concert, held at the Philharmonie.

This traditional evening of solidarity, organised with its long-standing partners, EY the OPL and the Philharmonie once again brought together amateurs and members of SOS Friends, donors, partners, sponsors, volunteers and members of the association. Also present this year were the Minister of Family and Integration, Corinne Cahen, and the Ambassador of Great Britain, John Marshall.

On this occasion, Marjolijne Frieden, President of SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde, thanked those who help to continue this tradition of the Christmas Concert before speaking of the constant conflicts and catastrophes facing the world’s most fragile children. She insisted on the children of the Middle East and those of Syria in particular, for whom SOS has been mobilising for several years. She also recalled the help offered in Lebanon where many are refugees. Her talk was backed by footage shot last October by director Andy Lamesch during a field mission of SOS Villages d’Enfants Monde.

Furthermore, the public was immediately won over by the precise, rigorous and energetic leadership of Indonesian-born German chef Adrian Prabava. He was able to highlight the instruments of the OPL from the first measures of the lively Bacchanal Camille Saint-Saens who opened the evening. The young French cellist Victor Julien-Laferrière also stole the show.

The second part of the evening was animated by Richard Strauss's famous orchestral suite Der Rosenkavalier, inspired by the opera of the same name, and Maurice Ravel's choreographic poem La Valse.