05/06/2026
Last week in Lucerne, Avant-Garde Lawyers had the honour of joining and the Human Rights Orchestra for a powerful charity concert in support of .ukrainian and .contatto.
Across several days of rehearsals, conversations and music, AGL’s Executive Director, Andra Matei, and Secretary General of Manfred Nowak spoke with the orchestra about music and human rights: from Beethoven’s Fidelio, an opera about political imprisonment and liberation, to Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony, often read in relation to fear, repression and artistic survival under Stalin.
Four years after AGL was one of the organisations supported by this concert, it was deeply meaningful to return, and to connect these histories with AGL’s work supporting musicians and artists facing censorship, threats, prosecution or exile.
With gratitude to , Musicians for Human Rights, the Human Rights Orchestra, all the musicians and .
Warm congratulations to Gen.Ukrainian and Fondazione ConTatto, whose essential work gave the evening its urgency and purpose.
Slide 1: AGL Gender Expert , Manfred Nowak and Andra Matei;
Slide 2: Orchestra conductor Alessio Allegrini, Andra Matei, Vice President of Musicians for Human Rights Alberto Danelon and Manfred Nowak
Slide 3: Andra Matei speaking with Manfred Nowak
Slide 4: Music scores for the evening’s program: Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, From the New World.
Slide 5: Rehearsal, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with
Slide 6: The audience begins to rise for a standing ovation after the concert, inside the interiors of .
