BPO Announces a Concert as a Gift to All Children Who Participated in the Competition

The Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra has announced the names of 500 school children from Serbia and Montenegro as the winners of the literary contest “What Exactly Is a Philharmonic”. The Philharmonic Backpacks have been distributed to 48 towns all over the two countries, packing many gifts. In addition to My Frist Classical Music CD, recorded and published by the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, the backpacks also include a T-shirt, a cap, a frisbee, a notebook and a pen with an inscription “I Love the Philharmonic”.

The Evaluation Committee, chaired by writer Ivana Dimić, had a very difficult task to choose the best 500 literary works. In order to thank all children who participated in the contest, the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra will give a gift New Year concert titled “I Love the Philharmonic” at Kolarac on 13 January, at 12 noon. The orchestra will not forget the children outside of Belgrade either – they will have a chance to enjoy the orchestra’s performances in a series of visits to towns across Serbia next year.

The messages of appreciation and the photos of the children wearing the backpacks are arriving from all over the country. The CD, on which the orchestra is playing Saint-Saëns’ Carnival of the Animals and Prokofiev’s Peter and the Wolf, has already found its way into music and fine arts classes, and the BPO has been commended for being “trendy, because the backpack has a designated slot for headphones”.

Children’s brilliant writings describe the Philharmonic as “a cake cream that is whipped while listening to a beautiful melody” and as a place where “the magic is created and nobody gets bored”. Many of them knew that the orchestra was founded in 1923 and they understood the concept of the Philharmonic as an ideal family and as “the house of music, which makes one’s heart full”. The youngsters argued that classical music was more beautiful than what can be heard in cafes or cinemas, and that it was easier for them “to write the word Philharmonic than to pronounce it, but the easiest thing is to listen to the music it makes”.