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The Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR) in London and the Romanian Embassy in the UK held a special event on Thursday, 4 June, to celebrate the extraordinary contribution made by the Romanian community in the UK in the fight against the pandemic, informs a release of the institute sent on Monday to AGERPRES.
The concert held by the Timisoara-born musician (Alexandru-Mihai) Sascha Bota (rape) and the Australian pianist Cameron Roberts had originally been scheduled to take place in early April as part of the Enescu series of ICR London, in front of an audience of 200 lovers of classical music. In the new format, the event was broadcast on the social media channels of the two institutions, as well as other Romanian organizations, being watched by an audience of more than 11,000 people.
In the opening, the Romanian ambassador to the United Kingdom, Dan Mihalache said he is proud to serve the second largest national community in the UK, a group of divers people, having in common an outstanding labour ethics.
"It is indisputable that they have had to carry a disproportionately greater burden since the beginning of the pandemic, because many work in health and social assistance, education and child care, food production and distribution, utilities, public safety and transport. I am grateful to the voices of the British society who appreciated the contribution of Romanian men and Romanian women in these troubled times. At a time when the United Kingdom and Romania are celebrating 140 years of diplomatic relations, it is very important that their merits are recognised," the ambassador said.
The Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for European Neighbourhood and the Americas) Wendy Morton sent a video message in which she confessed her delight that a special concert had been held to recognize the contribution of Romanians on the front line in the UK, while the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Cressida Dick, also thanked the Romanian community there for their work.
In a video filmed in front of a blooming cherry tree in Bucharest, Andrew Noble, the British Ambassador to Bucharest, expressed his regret that the pandemic has messed up the plans to celebrate 140 years of Romanian-British diplomatic relations and sent a direct message to the Romanian community in the UK, saying he thanks them all for offering this human connection between Great Britain and Romania. You are the true engine of our bilateral relations, added the British diplomat.
The concert, which included works by Bach, Schumann and George Enescu, took place in front of a Wall of Goodwill, consisting of photographs of about 100 Romanians working on the front line in the UK, in an atmosphere loaded with emotion, which artistically fed the two musicians and caused them to overcome the inconvenience of the absence of direct dialogue with the public, the release reads.
