This year’s Europe Day was celebrated in London with a concert by the European Union Youth Orchestra held in St John’s church on May 9 and attended by 500 people.
The EU Youth Orchestra played among others a composition of five Greek folk dances, epirotikos, kretikos, tsamikos, arkadikos and kleftikos, by the renowned Greek composer Nikos Skalkottas. They also played several parts from works inspired of the Greek mythology such as Orfeo by Monteverdi, Semele by Handel, Alceste by Gluck, Dido and Aeneas by Purcell, Dardanus by Rameau, Wasps Ouverture by Vaughan Williams, Idomeneo by Mozart and Strauss and La Belle Helene by Offenbach.
In the event spoke the Greek Ambassador in London Konstantinos Bikas, the Head of Representation of the European Commission, Jacqueline Minor, and the Head of the European Parliament Information Office in the U.K., Bjorn Kielstrem.
Before the concert, a reception was held at the office of the European Commission Representation in London, where the engraving collection of Yannis Papakonstantinou is being hosted.
Europe Day celebrates peace and unity in Europe. It commemorates May 9, 1950, when the then French Foreign Minister Robert Schuman presented his proposal on the creation of an organized Europe, to help maintain peaceful relations between European countries. This proposal, known as the ‘Schuman declaration’, is considered to be the act that created what is now the European Union. Each year’s Europe Day has a different theme.
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