New Year’s Concert 2021 for Peace

54th World Day of Peace

On January 1 2021 at 12:30, the New Year’s Concert for Peace will be transmitted, for the first time and exclusively, on the initiative of Ars Pace, from the Sanctuary of the Eremo delle Carceri in Assisi: the ancient Franciscan secluded place where St. Francis, his companions and, after them, the friars, went for intense periods of prayer.

It is intended to be an explicit call to the world for universal peace, as stated by Pope John Paul II in 1986, 35 years ago, with the interreligious meeting in Assisi, when various religious leaders gathered to pray for peace giving life to the “Spirit of Assisi”.

The date chosen is January 1st to celebrate “The World Day of Peace,” instituted by Pope Paul VI, beginning in 1968, to dedicate the New Year to reflection and prayer for peace.

The celebration of the 54th World Day of Peace is in the sign of the recent message of Pope Francis, who has chosen as a theme: The culture of care as a path to peace. To eradicate the culture of indifference, rejection and confrontation.

Ars Pace was born, precisely, to promote universal values in the world through Culture and the Arts, with the main objective of restoring balance and harmony, adopting a real dialogue of peace through the language of music, art, architecture, culture, science and economics. The will is to contribute to the construction of peace taking into account the delicate international relations, social integration, intercultural and interreligious dialogue (see annex).

And, therefore, Ars Pace strongly wanted this initiative, believing that it could become a shared tradition: an appointment to be repeated every year.

Unfortunately, this year, due to the restrictive measures caused by the health emergency, the concert will be pre-recorded on December 29 2020 in the charming loggia with arches of the convent, considering the anti-Covid regulations in force.

The event consists of a concert, by Maestro Andrea Ceccomori with the “Franciscan Quartet”, preceded by the greeting of Father Simone Ceccobao, friar minor of the Seraphic Province of S. Francesco (Umbria-Sardinia), guardian of the religious community of Eremo delle Carceri and a short video message of good wishes from the members of the Ars Pace Committee: President Enrique Barón Crespo, Vice President Monica Baldi and Secretary Anna Rüdeberg.

The “Franciscan Quartet” – formed by Friar Alessandro tenor, Elisa Bovi soprano, Andrea Ceccomori on flute and Maria Chiara Fiorucci on harp – will perform a Christmas traditional music program together with the re-reading of Franciscan lauds and the presentation of two unpublished pieces: “Hymn to Life” and “Hymn to Peace” (about 45 minutes).

Ars Pace aims to send a message of peace and hope and in this new year 2021, considering the difficult time of the pandemic we are enduring, by promoting a fundraiser for the Seraphic Institute for the deaf and blind of Assisi.

Assisi, 23 December 2020