KRISTY RAM­NAR­INE

Re­poorter

kristy.ram­nar­ine@cnc3.co.tt

Pres­i­dent of the Na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee Di­ane Hen­der­son and ca­lyp­son­ian Karene As­che will be recog­nised at this year’s Fran­co-Ger­man Clas­si­cal Mu­sic Con­cert, host­ed by the Em­bassies of France and Ger­many at the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA) to­mor­row from 6.30 pm. French Am­bas­sador Di­di­er Chabert said Hen­der­son was cho­sen for her ef­forts in pro­mot­ing sport at all lev­els in the coun­try.

“It is a mes­sage for youth be­cause sport rep­re­sents broth­er­hood and team spir­it, it car­ries in it hu­man val­ues that are es­sen­tial to the ed­u­ca­tion of young peo­ple,” he added.

“Di­ane Hen­der­son has done a re­mark­able job as the head of the In­ter­na­tion­al Olympic Com­mit­tee, and she is ded­i­cat­ed to the de­vel­op­ment of sport for youth. She must be praised for this.”

“Karene As­che placed sec­ond in the 2024 Ca­lyp­so Monarch with her song, No Ex­cuse.

“Her song car­ried an im­por­tant mes­sage ‘no crime, no ex­cuse’, which re­minds us that the fight against crime must be a com­mit­ment of any­body at any time be­cause every­one suf­fers from it,” said Ger­man Am­bas­sador Dr Christophe Eick.

“Fi­nal­ly, she is an ex­am­ple be­cause she comes from a neigh­bour­hood known as dif­fi­cult, which did not pre­vent her from ris­ing to the top of the na­tion­al artis­tic scene.”

Eick said the Fran­co-Ger­man Clas­si­cal Mu­sic Con­cert is held an­nu­al­ly on the eve of the sign­ing of the Él­y­see Treaty be­tween France and Ger­many 62 years ago.

“The treaty was a vi­sion shared by two great men, Pres­i­dent De Gaulle and the Ger­man Chan­cel­lor Kon­rad Ade­nauer who want­ed to rec­on­cile two coun­tries that had just been torn apart dur­ing three con­sec­u­tive wars, in­clud­ing two world wars,” he said.

“With this treaty, they al­so launched a unique and hith­er­to un­think­able dy­nam­ic of Eu­ro­pean in­te­gra­tion. Their suc­ces­sors then con­tin­ued to work to­geth­er to strength­en the con­struc­tion of a Eu­rope that is not on­ly an eco­nom­ic project but al­so a po­lit­i­cal, ed­u­ca­tion­al and de­fence project.”

Am­bas­sador Di­di­er said the con­cert of clas­si­cal mu­sic “is not the most com­mon mu­si­cal form in this time of Car­ni­val, but we deeply be­lieve that the mes­sage car­ried by the mu­sic is al­ways the same whether it is the ca­lyp­so, so­ca, jazz or clas­si­cal mu­sic.”

He added, “It brings peo­ple and hearts to­geth­er, brings hap­pi­ness and fa­cil­i­tates mu­tu­al un­der­stand­ing. Tues­day’s con­cert is de­signed to cre­ate plea­sure and light­ness. It al­so promis­es to bring a sooth­ing calm, a mu­si­cal treat that is del­i­cate and el­e­gant.

“In a com­plex, some­times bru­tal world, mu­sic is an ex­cel­lent way to bring us the op­ti­mism we all need.”

The event is free and will fea­ture the Na­tion­al Phil­har­mon­ic Or­ches­tra of T&T. Tick­ets are avail­able at the NA­PA Box Of­fice.