The East-West-Festival NRW and it´s Orchestra-For-Peace the East-West Chamber Orchestra with best musicians from more than 15 countries show how peaceful, respectful cooperation natural and at the same time needed today. Through the cultural event, we do our best to unite rather than divide and support children in need. Since 2015, the motto of the East-West Chamber Orchestra has been: “We build bridges”. Today it logically incorporated into the philisophy of the East-West-Festival too.

In a world scarred by conflicts and tragedy, East-West-Festival NRW raises its voice to proclaim a message of Peace. The Orchestra-For-Peace East-West Chamber Orchestra is at the center of this moving cultural encounter, which supports young musicians and touches hearts.

It is a meeting of the best talents from North Rhine-Westphalia, Eastern and Western Europe, as well as the best musicians who have found their home in the European Union. Together they are supported and encouraged to develop their extraordinary abilities. But that’s not all: the festival also extends its helping hand to children, who are in distress due to wars and other emergencies in partnership with one of the oldest and respected charity organizations in Germany – Save The Children.

Here the best soloists from over 15 countries of the East-West Chamber Orchestra unites with world stars. This musical union gives us moments in which we can experience the beauty and power of human creativity. The members of the orchestra are outstanding soloists, winners of prestigious competitions such as the Tchaikovsky Competition, the ARD Competition, the Queen Elisabeth Competition and the Paganini Competition. They are concert masters in the best orchestras in the world and play the most unique instruments such as Stradivarius and Guerneri-del-Gesu. Because of their achievements The East-West Chamber Orchestra also had the honour of being invited as the first orchestra ever to play in Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople in presence of His All-Holiness the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I. Many of their concert projects have been carried out for the benefit of UNICEF and children’s aid.

Concerts, master classes and workshops will take place in North Rhine-Westphalia and offer young talents and refugee musicians a platform to develop their potential. The world premieres of compositions from the west and the east give us a unique view of the diversity and unity of music.

In these difficult times we are going through, we need initiatives like this more than ever.

We cannot end the wars of this world, although we deeply desire it and pray like for Peace like millions of people around the world. Nonetheless, we truly believe that music and culture can bring hope in the most difficult times and at least for a moment it speaks to comfort those who are saddened . For a whole year we made a conscious decision not to give any concerts. Our hearts are broken but we do go on and keep playing to connect people around the world.

The Orchestra-For-Peace East-West Chamber Orchestra was founded in 2015 by the renowned pianist and conductor Rostislav Krimer and since then has been passionately committed to the realization of these noble goals.

It is important to us to help and support go on with our tradition to support children in need. This project serves the common good and has a true humanitarian spirit.

This year we are collecting for SAVETHECHILDREN.DE:

“Whether natural disasters, droughts, diseases, political unrest or wars: more and more children find themselves in life-threatening emergencies – sometimes overnight – are injured, have to flee, need medicine, food and a roof over their heads. On the other hand, there are there are many forgotten crises that have plagued children’s lives for years, robbing them of any chance for a future of peace and dignity.In both cases, resources are often insufficient – for while one crisis is sudden, the other is over The years have been forgotten because other events make the headlines. For this reason, Save the Children has set up the Children’s Emergency Fund. The donations that flow into the fund help children quickly and easily where the need is greatest and funds are urgently needed.”

May the music open our hearts and remind us that amidst the darkness, the light of hope continues to shine.