Announcement

The Athens State Orchestra shares our audience's worries and concerns.

Out of respect for Ukraine's dead and the needs of our fellow human beings, we have accepted the proposal of the artistic director of the Municipal Theatre of Piraeus, Mr Lefteris Giovanidis, that the proceeds from the concert scheduled for today should be donated to the fund created for rebuilding the Mariupol Maternity Hospital.

The Athens State Orchestra was founded to bring music to the people of Greece and has been doing so regularly for decades now. It strives, as far as possible given the institutional support it receives, to make the joy of listening to live music available to Greeks all around the country and all year round. We remain consistently at the side of our society's weakest members with extensive social programmes including the "Seminars for Brass Players" and "Epi-menontas Aigaio". We have given concerts in rehabilitation centres, in detention and correctional centres, in institutions for the disabled and in hospitals, doing everything in our power to provide some relief, however slight, without remuneration. Finally, we are one of the few institutions (and certainly the only musical one) that has developed a special programme for refugees, our "Pink Box"; indeed, firm in our belief that man, as a social being, is not only in need of food and shelter, we have had the programme up and running since the first wave of refugees arrived in Greece. The crucial social actions we operate throughout Attica also include "A Right to Music" and, of course, "Offering Music and a Musical Offering" under Leonidas Kavakos— an excellent initiative for which we have publicly thanked him many times.