10.09.2007

Vienna, 10 September 2007 - At the end of September Sandra Pires is setting off for a moving series of concerts. The performer, who now lives in Vienna and is currently the star of "The Sound of Music" at Vienna’s Volksoper, will be touring through East Timor. The well-known singer was born in Dili, East Timor’s capital, and grew up with her grandparents in Portugal and later in Australia before starting a family in Vienna and making this city her home. Since then she has never been back to her crisis-ridden homeland. East Timor, which is situated amidst the Indonesian archipelago, has been independent for five years. A Portuguese colony up to 1975, it was subsequently under Indonesian rule until it became independent.

The concert project was initiated by Austria’s Ambassador to Jakarta, Klaus Wölfer, whose scope of responsibilities also includes East Timor, and the Security Adviser of the International Organization for Migration in East Timor, Peter Trost. Sandra Pires responded enthusiastically to the idea, while East Timor’s government as well as numerous international institutions and enterprises are also supporting the project, including Austria’s Foreign Ministry, the embassies of Portugal and Australia, the United Nations, the international military stabilisation forces, the Timor Hotel, the Puri Madawi Resort in Bali, Ensul, Timor Telecom, and the Bank of Portugal.

Sandra Pires intends to do some fascinating bridge-building between Vienna, Europe's capital of music, and the insular world of Oceania - the title of her latest CD "destino" (fate) stands programmatically for her homecoming. She will sing her songs in the country’s languages Portuguese and Tetum, but also in German, English and Indonesian, which is also spoken in East Timor.

For Sandra Pires it is bound to be one of the most exciting performances of her life. Her father, who worked as a soccer coach in East Timor, is closely associated with the fate of the former freedom fighter and present Prime Minister "Xanana" Gusmao. However, the journey will not be confined to Sandra Pires’ personal quest to trace the past, but also illustrates how a daughter of the country became successful in the world and how she remembers her old homeland. Thus, Sandra Pires is Austria's and/or Europe's "ambassador of music", personifying the opportunities our globalised world offers to multilingual talents.

In accordance with East Timor’s wishes the Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs will take the opportunity to study possible options for music education in East Timor: despite widespread poverty Timor-Leste has a culture of choir music that is cultivated by numerous Catholic churches. The concerts will go hand in hand with the launch of a charity project.

Contact:
Austrian Embassy Jakarta
Tel.: (+62/21) 25 93 037
Fax: (+62/21) 52 92 06 51
mailto:jakarta-ob(at)bmeia.gv.at
http://www.aussenministerium.at/jakarta