GO(d)BA 2025 - Concert under the stars

The GONG Orchestra will perform with soloists and guests at the 3rd Concert Under the Stars.

As part of the Concerts under the Stars series with the subtitle United in Culture, musicians led by conductor Sandi Cej are announcing a musically rich evening. The concert will culminate with a combined rendition of the Italian anthem, the Slovenian and Austrian anthems, and the Ode to Joy. The event will be opened in a particularly solemn manner by the anthem of the European Capital of Culture GO!2025 for wind orchestra, which was selected in a competition and set to music by Vid Bavcon. Most of the other compositions were also written specifically for this occasion, and we are looking forward to the internationally renowned composer Virginio Zoccatelli from Italy and numerous other distinguished guests honoring us with their presence. In addition to the music that will weave invisible threads of connection, the concerts will also feature exceptional soloists; soprano Nejka Čuk (SLO) and harpist Ester Pavlic (IT). The Castle Garden, which has reopened its doors to visitors after five years, will be the venue for a free concert that brings together artists from both sides of the border, the delicate jazz and modern dance numbers of the PRO Dance Company and the spectacular fiery performances of the KreAktiv group. The music combines “These are powerful, sensitive and magnificent compositions that come from our common past,” says Sandi Cej, conductor of the combined orchestra. “The truth is that, apart from politics, we have always been a true reflection of life along the border, simple people who are connected by a common culture, a mixture of language and customs, and have always been connected. Borderlessness did not come about by breaking down borders. Borderlessness is actually something that has always been present in the people along the Gorizia border and no one can change this in the future.” The event is free and open to all visitors, with the recommendation to secure a seat in good time. The Coronini Palace Park will open one hour before the start. The concerts under the stars are part of the activities of the GO(d)BA 2025 project (Cross-border Band Nova Gorica and Gorizia), carried out by the Goriški pihalni orkester and Casa delle Arti APS. In the luxurious park of the historic Coronini Castle in Gorizia, which has for centuries connected the Central European and Mediterranean soul of the region, as part of the European Capital of Culture, the GONG Orchestra - a brass band of united brass players from Gorizia and Nova Gorica - will come to life. The renovated Coronini Castle park will come to life through music, dance and a fire spectacle.

The project is financed by the European Union through the GO! 2025 Small Project Fund of the Interreg VI-A Italy-Slovenia 2021-2027 Programme, managed by the EGTC GO.