Violin virtuoso Patricia Kopatchinskaja offers concert to Moldovan children

Chisinau-born internationally renowned virtuoso Patricia Kopatchinskaja offered a violin performance to underprivileged children from different parts of Moldova who gathered in Chisinau on Saturday for the Artistic Gala of the project FACT (an abbreviation standing for Be of Help to the Country’s Children). Kopatchinskaja entertained the children in her capacity as Goodwill Ambassador of the Swiss foundation Terre des hommes (Tdh). The violinist told Info-Prim Neo she returned to Moldova for several days, because she learned that her native country is Europe’s poorest country. “I wanted to help the kids whose parents are abroad and who live a cheerless childhood because of it”, she said. Asked if she thinks that the music she pays on stages around the world is understood by children, Patricia Kopatchinskaja has said that children understand more than we think they do. “Children just have to be offered the chance to express their feelings, and classic music is one of the many ways. They also should be given the conditions to learn to play, for instance, the pipe, the pan flute, or the violin, but unfortunately no such traditions exist in Moldovan villages yet”, said the Moldovan violinist. Stefan Matti, the director of the classic music festival “Yehudi Menuhin” held in the Swiss town of Gstaad, where Patricia is a frequent participant, remarked that the children in Moldova are very special, but they need conditions to develop their talents. Speaking about Patricia, Matti described her as an exceptional person, who puts her heart and soul in her work as well as in her efforts to convince influent persons in Switzerland to help the underprivileged children in Moldova. “It’s one thing when people see the leaflets of different organizations telling about children in need of help, and it’s totally different when a person who really knows what a children in need is tells it”, Matti said. He also revealed that this year’s proceeds from the Yehudi Menuhin Festival would be donated to vulnerable children in Moldova. Patricia Kopatchinskaja is visiting Moldova on the invitation of Terre des hommes Foundation. According to Alfonso Gonzalez, the foundation’s delegate to Moldova, the project implemented in Moldova is a political activity, where the children are the politicians.