I am delighted that Tallinn Music Week is also taking place this year in Narva – a city with a colourful past and an impassioned present, and the point at which our country begins.
Some phenomenal musicians from Estonia and abroad have come together here for the festival. It will provide both entertainment and consolation. It will spark new ideas. It will give people the chance to break free from their everyday routine for a moment – audiences and musicians alike.
We have seen a great deal of late of exactly what music is capable of.
We have seen, amid the horrors of war, a musician in the heart of Kyiv on his way to the front sing a Ukrainian folk song about a cranberry bush as a hymn to freedom which the whole world now knows and which gives people hope and the encouragement they need to stick together.
We have seen a pianist wearing a bulletproof vest giving a Chopin recital in front of Irpin’s cultural centre, levelled by bombs. We have seen a mother in the city of Bila Tserkva return to her ravaged apartment, brush the dust of war from her piano and likewise play Chopin. We have seen parents, grandparents, children, friends and strangers sing in bomb shelters and metro stations, and in the midst of ruins.
Music is helping these people carry on living. Music helps us all carry on living.
Music cannot be silenced by the sound of weapons fire. Musicians and event organisers around the world have put on an enormous number of charity concerts in support of Ukraine.
In addition to the millions they have raised, the concerts themselves have drawn the attention of millions, tens of millions of people to the barbaric war being waged in Ukraine and have united the world in standing against evil.
Artists and creators teach the world compassion and empathy. They teach us what it means to be a person. And let us not forget that musicians and concert organisers have arguably suffered more than anyone else in the two years of the coronavirus pandemic.
Last week I attended one of the concerts given in Estonia by the Kyiv Soloists, one of Ukraine’s foremost musical collectives. They left their country to embark on a tour of Italy on 23 February; the very next day, the Russian army started bombing their homes. It is moving to see how concert organisations all over Europe have come together to support the Kyiv Soloists, who have now given more than 60 concerts around the continent since the outbreak of war.
They are no longer just an orchestra, but an influential ambassador for Ukraine and a true herald of the anti-war message. Anyone who has attended even one of the concerts will never forget them.
Fellow festival attendees,
I wish you all wonderful musical experiences, today and every day. I hope Tallinn Music Week in Narva brings us together, and brings out the best in all of us. May art and culture help us become better, more empathetic, more compassionate people.
Thank you!
