Joana Carneiro, conductor at WYD Lisbon 2023
It is with mixed feelings of “privilege, gratitude, and responsibility“ that Joana Carneiro accepted the invitation to conduct the Orchestra and Choir of World Youth Day (WYD) Lisbon 2023.
Joana Carneiro, conductor of the WYD Orchestra and Choir Lisbon 2023, dedicates her life to working with orchestras from all over the world: Portugal, Spain, Italy, United States and Asia. She shares music with professionals from all continents, symphony orchestras, with choir and without choir, operas and ballets also. He currently works at the Paris Opera and has also collaborated in the preparation of the great meeting of young people from all over the world with the Pope.
Having already participated in other editions of World Youth Day as a pilgrim, the conductor recalled that taking part in WYD is “a very important moment in the life of young people and not so young“. Joana Carneiro participated for the first time in WYD Paris 1997 and remembers “feeling a very deep unity and sense of community,” she said.
World Youth Day has this objective of communion and sharing, of getting to know other people, of sharing what we are, what we know, what we feel, what we pray, what we think, what ails us, with people from all over the world
Joana Carneiro studied and worked in different places in the world, but she confessed that “WYD also has a spiritual aspect,” besides the presence of the Holy Father, which does not happen in every professional opportunity that comes along. This is an opportunity that brings together “two very important elements of my life: music, which is a large part of the air I breathe, and spirituality, which is a connection with something that goes far beyond us,” he said.
Not wanting to divulge too much about what is being prepared, the conductor opened the veil a little and revealed that several moments are being prepared to take place during the week of WYD, with the presence of the Choir and Orchestra of WYD Lisbon 2023. Each moment will be different and, according to Joana Carneiro, there will be moments when “some soloists will be present, the instrumental grouping is smaller, depending on the circumstances.” In addition to that, throughout WYD Lisbon 2023, “music from various traditions will be presented, with more recent voices, voices from our contemporary world, voices from a less contemporary world, and it will be a moment in which we will feel the presence of music through the ages,” she said.
Regarding music itself, Joana Carneiro stressed its importance in our daily lives, highlighting that “music always enriches,” having the “ability to give a different dimension to our lives,” she added.
The saying “to sing is to pray twice“ is a simple way to explain the role of music in this WYD, also because we will sing in several languages and, in this way, there will be a recognition of people of various origins
As for the WYD Lisbon 2023 Orchestra, it is composed by musicians of various ages, some professionals in the world of music and others pre-professionals, “but already with some experience in the field of music”. Above all, they are “people who are interested in participating in this Day in an artistic way and who have signed up for this occasion,” she said. The Choir is formed by several hundred singers who come from all corners of the country “t “o join this great community”.
Watch the full interview here:
