2^nd EU Multilateral Christmas Gala 2021

Gala Evening on Saturday 18 December 2021 at 19.00 CET

Matinée on Sunday 19 December 2021 at 15.00 CET

Schlosstheater Schönbrunn, Vienna

Call for Ideas on Music and Dance

Introduction

The year 2020 marks not only the 70^th Anniversary of the Schuman Declaration and the 75^th anniversary of the United Nations but also the celebration Beethoven's 250^th Birthday. To highlight these celebrations, the EU Delegation to the International Organisations in Vienna organised on 9^th May 2020 a live streamed Europe Day “TOGETHER as ONE” virtual event.

(https://eeas.europa.eu/delegations/vienna-international-organisations/79393/together-one-live-stream-final-cut_en)

This event, which included a performance of a unique arrangement by Konstantin Wladigeroff of Beethoven’s 9^th Symphony by 9 different artists from different genres, was a big success; hence the decision of the EU Delegation in Vienna to organise a follow-up live Gala concert in December as part of the “Multilateralism at Work in Vienna” and “UN@75” campaign, in collaboration with the German Presidency of the EU Council, the City of Vienna's "Wien Beethoven 2020" campaign, the City of Bonn's "BTHVN2020" campaign as well as with BOZAR in Brussels, who screened the concert on Christmas Day 2020 on their website and social media platforms.

The year 2021 marks the 10^th anniversary of EEAS, hence why this first Gala event was the ideal way to make the transition of a year of UN75 outreach activities and start with the series of EEAS10 events of which the Gala will be the first of EUDEL Vienna activities.

To build on the success of the Europe Day “TOGETHER as ONE” event and to yet again celebrate Multilateralism as well as European unity and solidarity, the artists from Europe Day event were brought together to perform live at the first Gala Concert.

At the Europe Day “TOGETHER as ONE” event, which took place in the “virtual world”, the 9^th Symphony of Beethoven was performed during 9 minutes by 9 artists from different genres connecting from their homes by means of a virtual artistic relay race and orchestrated by Austrian musician Dominik Nostitz. Pre-recorded arrangements were also prepared and shown in the live stream.

At the Gala Concert on 19 December 2020, the artists had, for the first time, the opportunity to perform this special and unique arrangement of the 9^th Symphony live and together at Schlosstheater Schönbrunn in Vienna. However due to the second wave of COVID -19 and the restrictions, which needed to be taken into account for the organisation of live events with an audience; these live performances were only brought in live-stream and without a live audience.

With the Europe Day “TOGETHER as ONE” event as a foundation, the December concert served as a continuation of the success story as well as the messenger of multilateralism as the key for development and the only right way of finding solutions to global crises. This is the start of the annual “EU Multilateral Christmas Gala”, taking place each year on the last Saturday before Christmas and of which the second edition will be live at the theatre and liv-streamed on Saturday 18^th December 2021 at 19.00. A second live matinée performance will be on Sunday 19^th December 2021 at 15.00.

Call for ideas

To allow diversity in the programming of the EU Multilateral Christmas Gala, a call for ideas on a 90 minutes performances of dance and/or music is launched on 19^th December 2020.

Artists, dance and music companies or their representations are invited to come forward with ideas of a full 90 minutes programme which include an original interpretation of “Ode to Joy” and which reflects multilateralism as well as European unity and solidarity. The submitters must have the capacity and experience of organising such events.

The ideas need to incorporate artist from different EU member states and the highlight multilingualism and cultural diversity of the European Union. The proposals maybe be of different genres or combined “Together as One”.

The proposals together with the portfolio of the submitters, justifying the capacity and experience to organise major performances, need to be received by email at Delegation-Vienna-Press@eeas.europa.eu before Wednesday 31 March 2021 at 12.00 AM

Selection

A Jury composed out of the EU Head of Delegation, EU Press Attaché and 2 representatives from the artistic sector will make a selection based on the following criteria:

• Originality of the interpretation of the “Ode to Joy”
• Multilingualism
• EU Cultural diversity
• Originality of the different genres and/or their combination
• Originality on the artistic interpretation of multilateralism and European unity and solidarity

Taken into account these selection criteria the jury will select three (3) ideas. The EU Delegation in Vienna will contact all the submitters of the three (3) selected ideas by the latest Thursday 15 April 2021 with the request to submit a financial proposal, in accordance with the tender specifications, for the realisation and production of their idea in cooperation with the EU Delegation in Vienna for the Gala and matinée performances.

Attribution

The attribution will be done according the tender specifications. The candidate to which has been awarded the contract to organise the performance of the EU Multilateral Christmas Gala 2021 will be invited to give a short performance at the Europe Day celebration (9^th May) where the winner will be announced.