The living legend of classical music, maestro Daniel Barenboim, co-founder (along with the late intellectual Edward Said) of the West-East Sofa Orchestra, which includes musicians from Israel and the Middle East, yesterday received the annual Empress Feofano Prize for the third time in a row. in the Rotunda of Thessaloniki. The ceremony took place in the presence of Prime Minister Katerina Sakellaropoulou and Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as well as many figures from Greece and other countries. Sudden and serious health problems prevented the main musician from attending the evening, so the award went to his son Mikhail, master of the orchestra. After the award, he also participated in the octet of musicians from the West-Eastern Sofa Orchestra, who performed Mendelssohn in this uniquely beautiful historical monument of the city.

The Empress Theophano International Prize was established in 2020 with headquarters in the Rotunda and has a dual purpose: on the one hand, to rally Europeans around their common cultural values, and on the other hand, to promote osmosis and mutual understanding. And if in the first year the prize symbolically went to Ursula von der Leyen as a representative of the EU. for the Erasmus program, and the second for a pair of scientists, Dr. Ugur Sahin and Dr. Ozlem Turechi, who with their research helped humanity protect itself from the threat of coronavirus, in 2022 it is time for art to become a force that builds bridges between cultures, stressed the journalist and Director “K” Alexis Papachelas, who presented the ceremony. There could be no more suitable recipient than Barenboim, who managed to become a messenger of the world through his art, music.

PtD stepped on the scene, describing the maestro as a great humanist, a courageous intellectual and an active citizen who always had the courage to vigorously defend his views. The speaker was Stavros Andreadis, President of the Teofano Foundation Steering Committee, who mentioned how the award relates to mutual understanding, respect for opposing views, cooperation, and how the Rotunda, a monument with Roman, Byzantine, Ottoman and Christian memories, is an ideal place for promoting these values. The baton was taken over by Herman van Robey, Honorary President of the European Council, who chairs the Prize’s Advisory Committee and has called Europe the greatest peace experiment and the suffering and threat of war beyond its borders. and also the great importance of music in softening differences. Mikhail Barenboim was the last and most excited to take the stage, stressing that his father was looking forward to his arrival in Thessaloniki and that the nature of the award and its place make it identical to the mission for which he worked so hard. . He came to the conclusion that each symphony of the orchestra is a call for mutual understanding.