Playing music with hundreds of enthusiasts from all over Europe – the celebration of Early Music Day had to be different, too, this year. Musicians from 16 European cities still managed to give a concert together, despite the pandemic.

On the initiative of Pau, France, the cities recorded their music separately, all playing and singing the chorale “Jesus bleibet meine Freude” from Johann Sebastian Bach. The pieces were put together in a joint video, published on the occasion of European Early Music Day on Sunday.

“It’s a sign that we believe in the future”

“It’s a gathering that gives hope,”, said François Bayrou, Mayour of Pau. “It’s a sign that we do believe in the future, in the future of culture and the future of encounters – which is another name for the future of Europe.”

Early Music Day is celebrated each year on 21 March, the beginning of spring and the birthday of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750).

The cities contributing are Birmingham, Bratislava, Debrecen, Dortmund, Dusseldorf, Gdansk, Genova, Istanbul, Karlsruhe, Leeds, Leipzig, Pau, Rotterdam, Stuttgart, Warsaw, and Zaragoza.