 Greetings. My name is Brenda Van Goghva, founder of the UN Chamber Music Society. Welcome to today's concert in celebration of Human Rights Day. Throughout this concert, we are honored to hear from three of the great leaders of human rights who have committed their lives to fighting for human rights. We will hear from Ilse Brandes-Carris, UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights and Head of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights in New York, Derek Leon Washington, OHCHR's Senior Regional Human Rights Fellow, and Ndaba Mandela, founder and chairman of the Mandela Institute for Humanity. I would like to thank them for their kind support to this concert. I hope that you will enjoy the music program, which will celebrate musical works by female composers and composers of minority communities, representing an artistic tapestry of composers from diverse backgrounds. We are excited to feature music by Grace Moore, a 12-year-old participant in the New York Philharmonic's very young composers program. Other musical gems, which will be featured, include compositions by Geraint Talveur, a 20th-century composer who was the only female of Les Sixes, and Francesca Gonzaga, a 19th-century Brazilian female freed slave. I would like to thank all the musicians and friends of the UN Chamber Music Society, including the beautiful Flutus Caro Wincense, Principal Harpist of the New York Philharmonic Nancy Allen, and the Associate Principal cellist of the Boston Philharmonic, Velera Mirages, for bringing beauty in the world and for their generous support to this occasion. There are so many wonderful organizations dedicated to raising awareness of music composers of underrepresented communities such as Opus Illuminate, which will be featured in today's concert, and I would like to thank them for contributing to this concert. By celebrating the works of composers from diverse backgrounds, we help to realign the world of classical music with its nuanced history, while expanding notions of what is considered conventional classical music, symbolizing our hopes of building bridges of understanding of human rights. I hope that you will enjoy the concert. I thank you. I wish to thank the UN Chamber Music Society and its artistic director, Brenda Van Gogh, for this wonderful initiative. Music is the highest expression of human existence. It is the language which everyone speaks and that speaks to everyone, the language that connects us regardless of who we are and where we come from. More than any other form of communication, music represents the universality that binds us together as a human family. That power, in my view, has never been as important than at this time of unprecedented global turmoil caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic is at heart a human rights crisis with devastating impact on our basic rights and fundamental freedoms. This is why this concert, marking the adoption of the Universal Declaration for Human Rights, is so timely and so important. In particular, by bringing to the limelight composers of minority communities and female composers, we celebrate not only the diversity that our societies depend on to thrive and grow, we also amplify the voices of those who are often marginalized and unheard. As the pandemic has disproportionately impacted on racial, ethnic and religious minorities, the concert symbolizes the truth that we will only build back and recover better from the pandemic if all voices are heard. The Universal Declaration for Human Rights explicitly underlines that a common understanding of the rights and freedoms it sets out is of the greatest importance for the full realization of this pledge. Music can achieve that common understanding. Just as music is not just a series of notes, human rights are not just written words. They bring dignity and solidarity to our existence. Thank you. Greetings. My name is Derek Leon Washington. Like an ensemble, each person has a role to play in promoting human rights. Our roles are interconnected and work better when we're all in tune. This is why I'm having part of this concert hosted by the UN Chamber Music Society. A few years ago, I created a museum exhibition and program series about salsa music. I displayed musical instruments that shared the roots and routes of the style that included West Central African, Indigenous, Cuban, Puerto Rican, Spanish, Sephardic Jewish, Roma and Amazir elements to name a few. The exhibition eliminated how music can share some of the complicated ways we're connected and how we can all move forward together. Through music and dance, it initiated dialogues giving people the opportunity to really experience tangible and intangible cultural heritage. My work focuses on music created when the cultural and democratic aspirations of communities are not in harmony with their physical realities. I created a citywide interactive program series about how the American, French and Haitian revolutions created a type of community protest music, democratic music making that still inspires us today. The program reminded our communities that the applause and the chance for frontline workers during the high of the COVID-19 pandemic are part of rich musical legacies. These legacies manifest and fill in some of the largest protests in United States history in 2020, specifically calling for the end of systemic racism not only in the U.S. but around the globe. Here in New York City, jazz musicians lack processions, traded notes with classical string quintets, followed by West African drummers turning to intergenerational parties with bass-heavy electronic music from the Caribbean. Musicians provide an environment so protesters can march peacefully, sing loudly and dance towards our collective freedom. This concert helps us think about hard questions that are central to the performing arts, whose work is included in archives, who receives funding and who has the opportunity to direct. Multilateral dialogues might help address some of these questions. Music is a universal language. I hope this concert helps us find a common language to fight for the civil and human rights of us all. Thank you. Greetings. My name is Nder Mandela, the chairman of the Mandela Institute for Humanity. I would like to thank the UN Chamber Music Society for presenting this concert. This event symbolizes the world's cause to action for solidarity with all people everywhere fighting for justice and equality for all. Ladies and gentlemen, I commend the UN Chamber Music Society for featuring black composers who have changed the course for classical music history in celebration of this important day. I hope that you will enjoy this concert. I thank you.