Revolt in classical and rap: a charity concert of young musicians at Križanke

Rap, hip hop, poetry and classical music. Today, 86 young musicians from the Slovenian and Ukrainian Youth Orchestras and 15 rappers from the younger generation will join together on the stage of Ljubljana's Križanke. As part of the charity concert Alarm - H2SO4 united to draw attention to climate and social justice and to express through art their resistance to social and climate injustice.

Križanke hosts today a charity concert for climate and social justice Alarm - H2SO4 , where Slovenian rappers will perform to the accompaniment of the Music For the People orchestra. This is a project that the Slovenian Youth Orchestra, under the direction of conductor Živa Ploj Peršuh, started planning back in January, shortly after the publication of a collection of rebel poetry. H2SO4 The war in Ukraine gave the originally planned project additional dimensions and meaning, as Ploi Pershuh helped to organise the evacuation of young musicians from the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine. "The concept of charity evolved when it became a necessity," said Ploj Peršuh before today's concert.

"It is about bringing together young people who deserve to be given a voice and a stage like the one at Križanke," she stressed. "Climate and social justice is one of the issues that young generations are actively engaged in even more than we are, and will be in 2050," said Ploj Peršuh, which is why the concert was specially commissioned to create a piece of music that aims to outline what Ljubljana will look like in 2050. She added that young people are stronger than older generations in their thinking about climate change, social inequalities and problems, so they have the opportunity to activate and unite in their desire for change in their own way through music and the interpretation of art. "You don't have to be a speaker at protests to be heard, a top artist, musician, rapper can also express their voice," the conductor said.

Dr Igor Saksida, professor of literature at the Faculty of Education in Ljubljana, who has been combining rap and classical Slovenian poetry in various projects for years, said that the expressiveness of rap and its desire to change the world is what unites it most with poetry. He sees it as a way of reflecting in the world and changing it through inner rebellion. "Young artists know exactly this, which is why they have reinterpreted Slovenian rebel poetry in an innovative way," he added ahead of today's concert.

Today, 86 musicians from the Youth Orchestra, 15 rappers and violin soloist Maja Horvat will join together on the Križanke stage. Accompanied by the orchestra, the representatives of the younger generation, including Masayah, one of the most recognised artists on the Slovenian hip hop scene, and the rappers - including Emkej, Drill, Vazz, Žena and many others - will activate, thematise and interpret in their own style the poems of the literary giants Prešeren, Župančič, Zajc and Šalamun, which are collected in the book Slovenian Rebel Poetry and on the album Prešeren and Župančič. H2SO4.

As the Beletrina website notes, what gives the collection, which consists of 35 poems and eight texts from the accompanying album, its special value are the thematic reflections of 34 contemporaries whose work in a wide variety of fields broke out of the box of mediocrity. These writings seek to show the living message of poetry from its beginnings to our own time, and the anthology also delves into music, with the renowned artists Masayah and HYU created original musical interpretations of selected rebel songs. "Not surprising, since rap music is also a cry of rebellion against a society in which we are constantly searching for freedom and humanity," they added.

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