São Paulo – In a bid to help young Lebanese artists through the difficult times in the country, with the Port of Beirut blast on August 4, the coronavirus pandemic, and a political and economic crisis, conductor João Carlos Martins (pictured above) announced that he will play a concert with the SESI-SP Bachiana Philharmonic Orchestra to raise funds once the pandemic is over and concert halls and auditoriums have reopened.
Martins will upload a video to launch a campaign on Saturday (15) on his Instagram account. He made a video of himself performing Lebanon’s National Anthem alongside the orchestra’s tenor Jean William, who sings in Arabic, this Friday (14) at the FIESP auditorium. Martins also delivered a piano rendition of Enrico Macias’“Beyrouth.”
The maestro says times are hard right now for students of the arts, music, theater, filmmaking and the fine arts in Beirut, as well as anyone else. “So I am announcing that the SESI-SP Bachiana Philharmonic Orchestra is playing a concert as soon as possible, once the pandemic has ended, to raise funds for art students in the city of Beirut,” Martins told ANBA.
He hopes other Brazilian artists will follow suit and play concerts to help raise funds. “My idea is to have the campaign go viral so that other artists will join in,” he said.
Martins has done several campaigns to the benefit of vulnerable communities and people with disabilities in Brazil. “For the first time, I am doing a campaign over something that happened overseas,” he said. This will also be the first campaign in Brazil specifically designed to help Lebanese artists in the wake of the disaster.
It should be a while before the concert takes place, since all venues are closed to prevent the coronavirus from spreading, and no one knows when this will end.
The maestro says he has no ties whatsoever to the Lebanese community in Brazil. “I respect all communities. I come from a Portuguese family, but this is a cause we all must be involved in,” he said.
Maestro João Carlos Martins made his first Instagram post almost two years ago, in September 2018. Right now, he has almost 170,000 followers on the social media.
Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
