Lullabies from Around the World – 2024.05.18

The Rui Cunha Foundation presents on Saturday, May 18th at 5:00pm, a concert of “Lullabies from Around the World”, conducted by Vit Polášek’s Family Strings Quartet, that will be joined by 7 local voices to perform traditional children’s songs of different nationalities.

The event will be kind of a pocket concert, inviting the public to listen to 12 folk songs, representing 9 countries: Portugal, France, Germany, Romania, Brazil, Indonesia, Korea, Japan and China (Guangzhou). As Vit Polášekexplains, «we have chosen lullabies from all around the world and asked our friends of any ages who live in Macau to sing with us. While some songs we have already recorded and posted on YouTube, others will be premiered in this very event».

The strings quartet – composed of two violins, a viola and a cello – was founded by Vit Polášek and his wife Lu Yan, both professional members of the Macau Orchestra, and joined by their two sons, Vit and Lukas, already plucking instrument strings themselves.

«Living in Macau for over 20 years, and missing my own country’s tradition, I realized that like myself, many expats feel the same kind of nostalgia. And what could be a better way for a musician to fulfil those longings than through songs that we have heard from our parents or grandparents during our childhood: the lullabies?», he reflects.

«All songs are traditional and arranged by myself, except for “Boa Noite Vitinho” by Isabel Campelo, published in 1986, and “Canção de Embalar” written by José Afonso, published in 1968. But, while I have tried to remain faithful to the source material for most, I took a few ‘creative liberties’ with some themes, as you will hear», says the project’s mentor.

Vit Polášek was born in Uherské Hradiště, then Czech Republic. He graduated from the Conservatory of P.J. Vejvanovsky in Kroměříž, and continued to study violin at the Janáček Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts in Brno (Czechia), and at the Franz Lizst Academy in Weimar (Germany). He worked at the České Budějovice Philharmonic Orchestra, the Talich Chamber Orchestra in Prague, the Olomouc Philharmonic Orchestra of Moravia (Czechia), and is now Second Principal Violin of the Macau Orchestra (Macau, China), in addition to teaching at the Macau Conservatory and holding regular masterclasses around the world.

The event will be held in English and Chinese.

Admission is free.

Don’t miss it!

For Macau, Further and Higher!