“Citizens must be inspired to believe that peace is possible”
August 18, 2011 about Uncategorized
Ambassador Swanee Hunt, Maestro Charles Anbacher’s spouse
The world suffers from deep political and ideological rifts, from inequities, from terror inflicted on one people by another. How will we stop the violence? It’s not only by politicians meeting across negotiation tables.
Citizens must be inspired to believe that peace is possible. A concert for reconciliation reaches millions of people, with the message of hope, so that those who hear will insist on an end to violence–insist not only to their neighbors but also to their political leaders.
What was the reaction of the audience to the music and the message?
In my remarks before the music started, people listened without a sound, as I said that we in the US know very well that 58,000 Americans died in Vietnam.
What we don’t know is that nearly four million Vietnamese were killed, including more than two million civilians. It’s time to commit ourselves to reconciliation, which was the vision of Charles and Tuan. Tuan and I then lifted out hands in the air, in a sign of friendship.
The audience clapped and clapped and clapped, for an unusually long time. Then the music started, and the effect was magical. I know from many comments and emails that it opened hearts and minds of those in the audience. The audience sprang to their feet at the end of the violin concerto with the 16-year-old soloist.
They were up again at the end of the symphony, and also after the encore. They were applauding not only the music, but also the concept of the power of music to heal. Tuan and Charles were like brothers in their vision of the importance of music to heal a hurting world, and the people could sense that.
At a personal level, was there also meaning?
In the course of our 25-year marriage, I watched Charles lead more than 70 orchestras, in dozens of countries. Many were at war, at risk of war, or just coming out of war: Azerbaijan, Bosnia, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Israel, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Montenegro, Serbia…. Americans generally think of Vietnam only in terms of war–the one that we lost. But there are many different kinds of struggle.
When my husband came to Hanoi, it was eight months after he was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor. He had been told that he had one to three years to live. Still he was determined to make that trip, even though he was so weak that he was lying flat on the floor of his dressing room during the intermission of the concerts. As it turned out, that second concert was his last full performance. He came back to the US, where he conducted parts of each of his planned concerts, completed his summer season September 1st, then died 11 days later.
Would you say that this concert series is part of his legacy?
The Reconciliation Concerts are definitely one way people will remember Charles. But they will also be part of the legacy of Nguyen Anh Tuan, former chief editor of VietNamNet, and other co- sponsors of that first concert at the Hanoi Opera House in April 2010.
These are only two in a series that will be on-going, long after we individually are gone. Boston’s prestigious Free for All Concert Fund has agreed to ensure that the concerts are produced every year, reaching all around the world, to our Vietnamese friends and every point in between.
What was the reaction specifically to Mr. Tuan?
Tuan spoke beautifully at a post-concert reception, and I received emails after quoting him directly. He now has a Boston family, eager to visit his Vietnam home. I hope you’re ready for a lot of guests!
| Swanee Hunt is president of Hunt Alternatives Fund, a private foundation focused on strengthening youth arts in all parts of Metro Boston, supporting leaders of national social movements, bolstering women’s leadership in conflict regions, combating the demand for purchased sex in the US, achieving political parity for women in high-level positions, and increasing philanthropy worldwide. She is the Eleanor Roosevelt Lecturer in Public Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, where she founded the Women and Public Policy Program. From 1993 to 1997, she served as US ambassador to Austria, during which time she hosted negotiations to stop the war in Yugoslavia and convened women leaders from across Eastern and Western Europe. A frequent media commentator, she is the author of three books with Duke University Press. Her Witness Cantata (for five soloists, chorus, and instruments) has been often performed under the baton of her husband of 25 years - Charles Ansbacher, international conductor and arts entrepreneur. She is in Board of Trustees of the Free for All Concert Fund, an independent grant-making foundation, ensures that everyone from the Boston region - children, adults, families - will have regular and permanent access to the rich world of classical, orchestral music and related cultural events. Her world includes their three children, three grandchildren, a cat, a parrot, eight horses, and 76 bison (in absentia). |
Bao Linh
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