Swiss Music Leader Who Keeps Kosovo Orchestra Alive

By: Fitim Salihu    May 29, 2014

Lukas Greiner, the leader of Basel Youth Orchestra “Birseck Schule” is making a big contribution for Kosova Youth Orchestra. Cooperation between Greiner and Kosova Youth Orchestra came as a result of the previous cooperation between two orchestras, especially because of the joint tour with concerts in Kosova, the main aim of which was to develop the interactivity between young musicians of Kosova and Switzerland.

The next tour that will be held in Basel is another opportunity to strengthen this interactivity. Basel Youth Orchestra “Birseck Schuke” invited their Kosovar counterparts to participate. However, this tour will unfortunately not be certain for as long as Kosova Youth Orchestra has no other donors but Basel Youth Orchestra. BYO settled the transportation problem for their Kosovar colleagues.

All of this is a special contribution of the leader of Basel Youth Orchestra “Birseck Schule”, Lukas Greiner. He is engaged not only with the instrumentalists of his orchestra but also with Kosovar instrumentalists.

“One of the biggest successes for us is the permanent cooperation with a youth orchestra from Dornach-Birseck Schule of Basel, Switzerland. Owing to leader of this orchestra, Mr. Lukas Greiner – who is the key person that is keeping alive our orchestra through humanitarian aid and permanent financing of our tours – we managed to realize a dream for Kosova’s youth. We sent 25 young instrumentalists for a two-week tour in Italy, together with their young colleagues from Basel”, noted for ‘albinfo.ch’ Kushtrim Gashi, the leader of Kosova Youth Orchestra.

After the April tour in Kosova,Mr. Lukas Greiner and his friends raised funds to take their 40 Kosovar colleagues to a tour abroad – in Basel, Switzerland. 5000 Swiss francs for 40 Kosovar musicians, assuring their flight to Switzerland, is the concrete aid from Swiss young musicians. However, the Kosova Youth Orchestra instrumentalists are not sure about their tour yet, because they have not managed to find donations for accommodation during the concert tour in Switzerland.

This tour would be another achievement for Kosova Orchestra and the young instrumentalists. Also, it would be another presentation and representation of our culture.

“I’ve asked for donations in Kosova, but as you can know, they refuse you with a lot of justifications. So we haven’t found any support here, unfortunately”, noted kapellmeister Gashi, disappointed, but hoping to get some help from Kosovar diaspora members in Switzerland.

If they manage to raise sufficient funds, young instrumentalists from Kosova will visit Basel Youth Orchestra, from October 31st to November 3rd or 4th of this year.

Kosova Youth Orchestra was established in 2009 and from its beginning it has greatly developed and had numerous successful concerts. So far, they have performed almost in all of the cities in Kosova, in some cities in Albania and lately in Italy as well.

The original article was posted at Albinfo.ch – Click here to read the original article.

Fitim Salihu

Fitim Salihu holds a bachelor degree from University of Prishitna in Political Science. Currently resides in Gjilan, and is a freelance contributor at KosovoDiaspora.org. He led the student organization named “ "Students Political Club" and is an active member of civil society in Gjilan.

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