Fourteen European cities let their organs sing for peace

On Saturday, April 26, the Contius Foundation will present 12 hours of music and advocacy for peace in the Sint Michiels Vredeskerk in Leuven under the name Imagine.

In 2023 and 2024 we already organized a marathon where organs sang and voices resounded. The themes focused on two current issues: climate and peace. Many domestic and foreign musicians took part in this activity. But prominent people from various professional fields also expressed their commitment to peace and climate through the spoken word. The whole thing was always rewarded with and by a large audience present.

On April 26, 2025, fourteen historic organs in as many European cities – including Brussels, Freiberg, Fribourg, Gothenburg, Innsbruck, Toulouse, Treviso, Trondheim – will join the Leuven initiative. Organists and choirs will give their best, interspersed with the advocacy of speakers who feel manifestly involved in social problems such as peace, climate and social justice. Luc Sels (rector of KU Leuven), Mohammed Ridouani (mayor of Leuven) and Olivier de Schutter (UN special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights), among others, will share their positions and visions on the peace issue.

On Saturday, April 26, from noon to midnight, organists and choirs and speakers will do everything they can to enter into a dialogue with that troubled world and to appeal to conscience in the literal sense of ‘the awareness of the suffering of others and the responsibility to act on it.’

The detailed program will be announced shortly.

You may say I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will live as one (John Lennon, 1971)

*** This event will take place in fourteen European cities: Altenburg, Brussels, Freiberg, Fribourg, Gothenburg, Granada, Leuven, Lövstabruk, Mafra, Tangermünde, Toulouse, Treviso, Trondheim and Alkmaar (on 27/4). You can find the international programm here.***