“In honor of Beethoven’s 250th birth year anniversary, the Ode to Joy will be brought to life once more on International Friendship Day today,” writes Malavika Menon in Thursday’s (7/30) Straits Times (Singapore). “Led by Singapore’s Wong Kah Chun, chief conductor of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra, the virtual performance, Beethoven 360°, [was] pieced together with digital submissions by instrumentalists and singers from music institutions worldwide [and includes] more than 1,000 participants … for a singalong in the Ode To Joy segment.” The concert has been released on Facebook and YouTube. “Arkadiusz Czopor, managing director of information and communications technology firm T-Systems South Asia … says the concert … ‘offers a small token of relief to musicians in Singapore and beyond at a time when artists worldwide are struggling with the effects of the pandemic.’ … Presented by the German embassy in Singapore and the Foundation for The Arts and Social Enterprise … Beethoven 360° is the first partnership of its kind between a foreign embassy and a local cultural institution since the outbreak of the pandemic.… The previously outdoor [German-Singaporean Beethoven Im Garden] concert, with people of different nationalities sitting together enjoying music, was an inspiration.”
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