16th ASIAN GAMES
November 15, 2010
Guangzhou, China
Presented by Mehri Madarshahi
Good evening Excellencies
Ladies and gentlemen,
Let me take this opportunity and welcome you to an evening of song, music and dance by 65 artists representing some 27 countries that aims to represent harmony in diversity, dialogue in conflict.
For the purpose of this program, we chose “scherezad” by the legendary Rimsky-Korsakov. We re-interpret the music to accommodate some 11 “talent shows” by the artists from countries listed in your program leaflets. As Scherezad –the captured Persian slave tells her one thousand and one night stories to us and to the “Khalif=Ruler of Baghdad” who just assassinated his wife for betrayal, we try to curtail our ambitions by putting all these dream-like stories into a bottle and let the genie out only 11 times. Shortage of time is to be blamed and not our lack of artists or imagination. In this journey, you will witness dance from Arabian Peninsula, Iran, India, Syri Lanka, the Philippians, Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, Vietnam and China who are only a hand picked countries from many in the Silk Road. The program tonight aims not only at showcasing rare talents, but it also serves as a platform for friendship and understanding and for promoting peace and unity.
A background video, which is gloriously prepared for this program, represents the Asian cultural heritage sites picked by UNESCO and produced by NHK. The Association was privileged to obtain the required permission to edit and reproduce these presentations for providing a visual learning of the beauty of what our ancestors have left behind for us to cherish. Culture unites us.
Not forgetting the importance of the 16th Asian Games, we are dedicating a sample of “zourkahneh” from Iran, which is very much in line with our objectives “music and sport for cultural harmony”. This part of the program will present in practice how music and sport could go hand in hand to give rise to harmonious movements. The tradition of using music in Olympiads in Greece and Ancient Iran and Rome although part of history but today still is very much at work.
The program concludes with a new composition by Phillip Rombi a French Composer who has neatly sewn the massage of harmony into a composition where all our musicians and dancers will produce through their glorious collaborative efforts a memorable ending to this mega concert.
These were all not possible without the unconditional support and patronage of a visionary Vice-Mayor of Guangzhou –Mayor Xu who throughout this long journey of some 18 months we spent to produce this program, always was there to lend his shoulder and his support to me and my Association Melody for Dialogue among Civilizations. Despite the bumpy road in international cooperation, we managed to bring this program to life and we can tonight proudly present it to you. Let’s enjoy and pledge to spread the words that humanity can prosper with togetherness.
Thank you all.