When music becomes protest – a concert evening followed by a discussion with representatives of the Belarusian diaspora.

The event will be held in English – free entry. Registration link:

https://www.stiftung-evz.de/en/events/registration/where-is-our-land/

Please note, registration to the event is not mandatory, but we would appreciate it for organisational reasons.

After the one hour-long concert, we invite you to a short panel discussion with the participation of Galina Kazimirovskaya, conductor of the Volny Chor, Olga Bubich, memory researcher, photographer, and essayist, and Masha, former EVZ Fellow and project coordinator at the NGO Educat Kollektiv. The discussion will be moderated by Mascha Wilke, Lead of the EVZ Academy.

The Volny Chor is a cultural protest movement in Belarus, which appeared as a reaction to the mass protests taking place in the Republic of Belarus in August 2020. The portests were met with a wave of violence by the country’s security forces.

Professional musicians gathered on the steps of the Philharmonic Society because they could no longer keep silent. They came out with a musical appeal to the people and sang the main anthem for all Belarusians – Magutny Bozha (Almighty God), to show a sign of solidarity to what was happening, their unity with civil society and protesters. At that moment, it was not yet clear that this emotional impulse would result in a movement. Various musicians, instrumentalists, singers, composers, amateur choirs and random citizens began to join. The song has become a unifying link for completely different people.

All the activities of the Volny Chor are strictly anonymous. No one knows who these people are, who appear from nowhere and disappear into nowhere. The main condition for the participation and existence of The Volny Chor is anonymous. The members cannot talk about their participation in the choir. Only the choir director renounces anonymity and bears responsibility for the ensemble. The Volny Chor has repeatedly experienced repressions and persecution: at least 30 people have been arrested, the choir is being hunted, there have been raids on rehearsals, intimidation and threats. But in spite of everything, the Volny Chor lives on, it has followers in different districts of Minsk, in other cities of Belarus and in different countries.

Many of the Volny Chor singers had to leave Belarus. Since the end of June 2021 the choir has been based in Poland where they arrange numerous concerts and tours to talk about their historical past, their present and the hope for the bright future of the New Free Belarus.