Йу Георг Гаде, правнук Кристиана Синдинга

My name is Jo Georg Gade and I am related to Christian Sinding through my great grandmother, Augusta Sinding. And it came as a shock to the establishment at that time, when my great grandmother, Augusta Gade, in 1898 divorced my great grandfather. But only two days later, on the 2^nd November 1898 she married Christian Sinding. (public’s laughter) Sinding had no children of his own, so he treated Augusta’s family — my great parents, my father and his brothers and sisters — as his own family.

The was a very good relationship and a lots of contact between Augusta and Christian and the Gade-family. And that was specially the case after Augusta and Christian moved to Wergeland’s Grotten next door neighbour to the Royal Palace in Oslo in 1924. Christian Sinding was the first artist to be dedicated Wergeland’s Grotten as honorary residence by the Norwegian authorities. And in Wergeland’s Grotten my family could witness Christian writing his music, meet his artistic friends and enjoy all the excellent meals, provided by Augusta.

Here in Moscow we have the 150 years jubilee since the birth of Christian Sinding. And I appreciate very much the initiative taking to fulfill such a project. The program is impressive and a lot of persons have laid down a considerable effort in the preparations. First of all I would like to thank the musicians, we are going to hear, for giving us all this wonderful music of Christian Sinding. And let me add a special appreciation to Per Vollestad through his PhD and his biography of Christian Sinding and his effort to promote his music. He has been one of the best contributors to emphasize the greatness of Christain Sindings and his music.

The Norwegian embassy has been very supportive to the project. So, I thank the ambassador Øyvind Nordsletten and the culture attaches Bergljot Hovland and Øyvind Rekstad. A thank also to the Norwegian Information Center by the director Sergey Shpilkin and Aleksey Selnitsin.

And last but not least I want specially to thank Jelena who has been the driving force for this project. And as a special talking of our appreciation I would have liked to hand over a little gift to you. The only problem is that the gift is in orbit somewhere with our lost luggage. (public’s laughter) That we will hand it over to you as soon as it arrives.

The gift is from the Gade-family, represented here today also my mother Ellen, my sister Nina and her husband Tom and my cousin Elenore and her husband Steinar. And the gift we are giving to you is a drawing showing Christian Sinding in his study in Wergeland’s Grotten in 1938. So, on behalf of all of us, thank you very much. (applause)