EARTHQUAKE IN NEPAL

Hubert von Goisern sings for quake victims in Nepal

It's often the case that an end is also the opportunity for a new beginning. "But the way it looks over there, you can't imagine how things are going to progress", says Hubert von Goisern. He used a concert-free day to talk about Nepal after the earthquake catastrophe. "What you see over there, what eye witnesses have described to me, is completely unimaginable."

Whole villages were obliterated by the earthquake in May. They were already in remote areas and are now in even more urgent need of help than before. "When a house collapses somewhere, the neighbour helps out", says the Goiserer. But: in many villages, everything has fallen apart. There are no neighbours who can help, because they themselves need help.

Hubert von Goisern has a long and close relationship with the Himalaya region. He travelled through here when he went to Tibet. He also met Tibetan dissidents in Kathmandu. It was – "an unfathomable 32 years ago" as he says - that he spent a few months travelling the country in the Himalayas. Now he is putting his art at the service of reconstruction.

A portion of the profits from his open air concert at the Kapitelplatz in Salzburg (28th June) will be going to EcoHimal. The Association for Alps-Himalaya Cooperation, based in Salzburg and Kathmandu, has been operating in Nepal and Tibet for more than 20 years, building power stations, schools, and hospitals. They support local cooperatives in the remote mountain regions of the Himalayas. "I have known, admired and supported the work of EcoHimal for many years", says Hubert von Goisern. For the finale of the current tour in Hallstatt (30th August), he'll be giving a benefit concert for this NGO.