Artistic Director/Chief Conductor, Jens Georg Bachmann and Orchestra Leader, Wolfgang Schroeder along with four other members of Cyprus Symphony Orchesta will not participate in a music festival in the Turkish-occupied north after the public uproar that was caused.
EDEK MP, Costas Efstathiou complained in parliament that the two German musicians along with the Papageorgio String Quartet (Constantinos Papageorgiou, Nicholas Papageorgiou, Iraklis Mitellas) and Nikos Pittas would have participated in the “16th Music Festival of North Cyprus,” which will take place in Bellapais Abbey from September 21 to November 16.
A poster showed that Bachmann (piano) and Schroeder (violin) would have participated in a concert on the 8th of October, while the Papageorgiou String Quartet would have appeared on the 6th of November.
After Efstathiou’s complaint, all the musicians signed a letter which was sent to CSO’ Board of Directors, withdrewing their interest in the festival.
President of the Board, Aigli Pantelaki, told Phileleftheros yesterday, that the musicians were reprimanded for not asking for permission to participate in the festival.
According to Pantelaki, they claimed that they did not understand that the festival is under the auspice of the “administration of the Turkish-occupied north” and demanded their withdrawal as soon as they found out.
MP Efstathiou said that Schroeder contacted him and made clear that he will not participate in the festival.
“Mr. Wolfgang clarified to me that he did receive an invitation to participate in the festival, to which he did not respond definitively and that he was caught by surprise. We should thank him because he stated that his wish is for Cyprus to be independent without dividing lines, in a democratic state, whose people will not be divided along ethnic, racial and linguistic lines, without an occupying army,” he said.
