Ívan Fisher

Iván Fischer, Conductor, Composer & Opera Director
©Ákos Stiller

Ah, Europe, will you survive? What is “you”? A treaty, an agreement, a large number of rules, standards and regulations, like a marriage contract, of which divorce is made difficult? 

Has this marriage been arranged by parents, by the wisdom of the founding fathers, and shaped by inertia and bureaucracy?

A few children have been born: peace on this continent, the euro, cheap international phone calls. The family seems to be successful.

But love is missing. Emotions are missing. Crowds still cheer national football teams, shouting national anthems. Nobody cheers a European football team, and the European anthem cannot be shouted because it has no agreed-upon language, no text. 

Dear European decision makers, it was a major mistake to leave culture to the Member States. If you want people to be passionate about integration, artists could help you by expressing European values in the visual arts, theatre, music. Artists can penetrate the heart. 

Why do orchestras, theatre companies, represent cities or states? Do you want them to promote civic pride and nationalism? By the way, they are not doing very well. Art and music education are terribly neglected in schools. Europe could step in. Europe could promote creativity, thinking and reading.

Because we, artists, are European, we are the true ambassadors of integration. Dutch painters in Florence, Franz Liszt playing the piano in Rome, Paris, or Budapest, the Bohemian Jew Gustav Mahler shaping the musical life of Vienna. 

Take our helping hands. Take culture from the egoistic Member States. Let artists discover and express their European identity. Let them penetrate the hearts.