Across borders

I love how the twinning system connects ordinary people across borders. This evening I went to a performance in the Town Hall of Carmina Burana whose orchestra was made up of young people from Oxfordshire, Leiden, Wrocław, Padua, Bonn, and Léon in Nicaragua. Local people have been fundraising to pay the costs of the two talented young young musicians from Léon and all the visitors are staying in local Oxford homes. The conductor was John Lubbock, who founded the Orchestra of St John's Smith Square (now called the Orchestra of St John's) when he was a music student in 1967 and who has conducted it ever since. He is passionate about supporting children's musical education.

Percussion plays a very important part in Carmina Burana and it was placed in front of the orchestra rather than its conventional position behind. I loved the bold, brash sound that created.

The Russian city of Perm used to be another of Oxford's twin towns and I have previously sung in a performance with dancers from there. Oxford City Council cancelled that twinning when Russia invaded Ukraine, but an Oxford lad who has family connections in Perm and who has often visited there, was playing piano. I was especially touched by this note in the programme: 'Special thanks is owed to the Oxford Perm Association. While no longer a twinned partner their members engage fully in the activities of Oxford International Links.' That will mostly be Oxford people of Russian origin.