Every day is a new story for us at the Belgrade Philharmonic, and it is not always about music. An important part of our work are corporate social responsibility projects.
 
The beneficiaries of the the Creative Educational Centre hand out concert programmes at Kolarac. One Wednesday in every month, we also open our doors to preschool children and organise interactive workshops. Our learning programmes are designed for children of various ages, from preschool youngsters to university students. For those who are unable to attend our concerts, the orchestra musicians reach out and take music over to them. This is organised in partnership with specialised institutions, such as elderly care centres, hospitals, social protection institutions and organisations. Sometimes the distance is a problem, but through our decentralisation projects, our chamber ensembles have taken their music to many cities across Serbia.
 
In this way, we are trying to earn and justify the support of the society in which we work, at all times emphasising the fact that the role of strong institutions is to promote important social values and enable progress.

The aim of these programmes is to ensure the Belgrade Philharmonic’s strategic position as the national institution that is available to audiences outside of Belgrade.

Our orchestra, or its representative chamber ensembles, have been performing throughout Serbia, giving both children’s and evening concerts. As ambassadors of the national cultural treasure, we have visited Negotin, Novi Sad, Kragujevac, Vršac, Gračanica, Ruma, Šabac, Smederevo and have played in cultural centres and school halls.

As of 2016, our concert season will include two mini tours of two Serbian regions – The Philharmonic Goes South and the Easter Concerts across the towns of Central Serbia.

We are committed to reaching out to those who find it difficult to reach us.

Highlights of our inclusion activities include:

• Continual cooperation with the Creative Educational Centre. On Fridays, the beneficiaries of the Centre are hired to hand out concert programmes to the audience at Kolarac;
• On the occasion of the International Day of Older Persons, celebrated annually on 1 October, the String Quartet gave a concert at the Gerontology Centre in Vršac;
• On the White Cane Day, celebrated on 15 October, the guests at the children’s concert included pupils from the Dragan Kovačević and Veljko Ramadanović schools for blind and visually impaired children;
• As a result of the cooperation established with the Special Hospital for Cerebral Palsy and Rehabilitation, the patients of this centre were guests at our open rehearsals and children’s concerts;
• We have connected with the Safe House, which was visited by female members of the BPO. They socialised and gave a short concert for the Safe House residents and their children;
• On the occasion of the New Year holidays, the BPO gave a gift concert to the beneficiaries of the Centre for Protection of Children and Youth. We played the most attractive programme for children – Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, at the hall of the Zmaj Children’s Residential Home, which was packed with children from the Zvečanska Centre, including a large number of children with developmental disabilities;
• Cooperation has been established with the Belgrade branch of the Mensa Society and an open rehearsal was organised for Mensa members’ children;
• We have printed concert programmes in Braille alphabet for blind and visually impaired persons.

SOON