Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

My speech will not last long as you are here to enjoy performance, but not some formal deliberations.

I could not omit this opportunity and privilege to mention that probably this evening at least some of us will be encouraged to re-evaluate something substantially in our life.

It goes without saying that whatever material assets we possess, our perception of happiness or unhappiness is not inseparably linked to welfare. There is no need in proving that parents’ most precious moments of the life are about their kids, and the unhappiest ones either.

“There is only one pretty child in the world, and every mother has it.” – Chinese Proverb says.

Professor Iryna Vokhmianina, my well-known in Ukraine compatriot, once discovered that the earliest possible communication between mother and child creates future harmony, much deeper mutual understanding, makes a newborn healthier and, well, even more optimistic. These are the components which laid basis for Symphony of Motherhood project brought to Singapore by Iryna.

It is my pleasure to note that tonight we will enjoy the music played by international group of musicians from Armenia, Bulgaria, Hungary, Singapore, Ukraine and the USA. Almost each of these countries faces demographic challenges, by the way, and is seeking for its appropriate solutions. Motherhood is a central point of such efforts.

Theodor Roosevelt said: “The mother is the one supreme asset of national life; she is more important by far than the successful statesman, or business man, or artist, or scientist.”

The last but not the list, I would like to thank Artistventure Concert Management for giving a helpful hand in implementation of the project in Singapore’s prestigious Esplanade Theatres on the Bay.

Thank you all for coming tonight. Let us enjoy the first in the series concert, remembering Plato’s words: “Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.”

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