Embassy Events

Embassy Promotes Hungarian-Slovak Communication with Big Band Jazz Evening

Remarks by Ambassador Rodolphe M. Vallee

December 2, 2007

Thank you, Mr. Varadi!  And a special welcome to Vice Premier Caplovic and to all our guests.

It is a great pleasure for me to help host this evening’s concert as my last public event before leaving Slovakia.

I have enjoyed the musicians and artists I have met during my term as Ambassador.  And it is a privilege for the Embassy to work so closely with many artistic personalities and institutions. I will certainly miss these occasions when I return to Vermont!

Tonight we recognize a collaboration between talented Hungarians and Slovaks in a special evening of music.

This is an evening to celebrate the absence of borders.  This is the Bratislava that I will always cherish in my heart: a place where many ethnic groups and nationalities live and work together and have done so for centuries.

As an American, I know it’s not always simple to mix people of a different heritage together. 

But let us each remember: I have much to learn from you, if your background is different from my own.

Tonight let’s enjoy the diversity that comes together and sparkles when people play good jazz! 

Enjoy yourselves!