Concert „It’s here at last“ at the Prague Crossroads
Václav Havel, along with non-profit institutions such as Dagmar and Václav Havel Foundation VIZE 97, Forum 2000 Foundation and the Václav Havel Library are preparing for Saturday, November 14th 2009, an international colloquium and a gala concert on 20th anniversary of the political changes in Czechoslovakia and the fall of the Iron Curtain, bearing the name of one of the mottoes of the Velvet Revolution „It’s here at last“.
The morning discussion with the participation of international and local celebrities of intellectual and public life, including the Václav Havel, Madeleine Albright, Jacques Rupnik, Adam Michnik, Martin Bútora, André Glucksmann, Tom Stoppard, Timothy Garton Ash, John Sokol, Petr Pithart, Jan Urban, and Martin C. Putna will take place in a large auditorium of the Faculty of Arts at Charles University. It will consist of two consequential round tables that will reflect the two main aspects of the topic of freedom in relation to the revolution and its implications – philosophical and geopolitical. Discussion between the round tables participants and students will follow the lunch break as the third part of the programme and it will be held in collaboration with the student initiative Inventory of democracy.
The gala concert, in which promised to participate Suzanne Vega, Joan Baez, Renée Fleming and Lou Reed will be held from 8 p.m. in Prague Crossroads and it will be broadcast live by Czech Television. It will be a unique performance of artists who have a friendly relationship with our country and our then selfliberational efforts. Singers will be accompanied by the Prague Philharmonia under the leadership of conductor Jiri Belohlavek.
Two prominent intellectuals from both eastern and western side of the former Iron Curtain: the Polish thinker Adam Michnik and the French philosopher Andre Glucksmann, will speak during the concert. Short speeches will be also given by then and today’s students´ representatives. President Václav Klaus promised to send his personal greeting to the concert and. from the record the concert will be saluted also by some important world figures, as U.S. President Barack Obama, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, former Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev, Federal Chancellor Angela Merkl and a musician and political activist Bob Geldof.
The event will be accessible only by invitation. Due to the limited capacity of the area, it is not possible to submit tickets for sale. However, we invite you to follow up the live broadcast of the concert at the first program of Czech Television or you can listen to Czech Radio 1 – Radiozurnal, on November 14th 2009 from 8. p.m.
