World Migratory Bird Day Concert

Bonn, 11 May 2015 – for the third consecutive year, the Corale Lirica San Rocco operatic choir from Bologna came to Bonn to sing at a benefit concert raising funds for bird conservation as part of the annual World Migratory Bird Day celebration.

The choir, which has performed at international festivals across Europe, sang arias from a selection of operas by Verdi, Rossini, Bizet, Bellini, Donizetti, Fauré and Mascagni and was joined for the first time this year by soprano Emanuela Moreschi of the Verona Arena.  Also making a guest appearance for the opening song was Bonn’s Lord Mayor, Jürgen Nimptsch.

Fernando Spina, the Chair of the CMS Scientific Council, is a member of the choir; it was at his instigation that the Corale Lirica San Rocco first came to Bonn in 2013. “I feel uniquely privileged to be able to engage in two of my life’s great passions – music and ornithology – in a single event” said Spina.

Jacques Trouvilliez, Executive Secretary of the African-Eurasian Waterbird Agreement (AEWA) in his opening address thanked the choir for making its annual migration from Italy and explained that the proceeds for the concert will go towards projects aiming to conserve the critically endangered Siberian Crane, which is listed on the Appendices of both the Convention and AEWA, the two treaties that organize World Migratory Bird Day.

The Benefit Concert took place on Saturday, 9 May at Bonn’s Kreuzkirche. On Sunday, the Choir sang at Cologne’s Church of the Assumption (S. Mariä Himmelfahrt) where the collection taken at the Mass was donated to Crane conservation.

 

Last updated on 18 May 2015

Type: 
News item
Species group: 
Birds