T’was that time o’year again and the crowds slowly packed into the Prague Hilton Conference Center facilities to attend this year’s highlight of the season: the Hilton Christmas Charity Concert for the benefit of C4C! With 1250 connoisseurs of fine music in attendance, the concert witnessed the highest turn-out ever and extra seating had to be added to accommodate this year’s audience.
Kicking the evening off with a short address were Michael Specking, Cluster Manager for the two Prague Hilton Hotels, and Erik Bossan, CEO of Pfizer Pharmaceutics – the title sponsor of the evening. Both made a point of highlighting C4C’s dedication and commitment to making life more livable for thousands of institutionalized, ill or socially disadvantaged children in Central Europe.
“After participating myself in C4C’s Dr. Clown program last year, I saw the enthusiasm the C4C team puts into their work”, said Erik Bossan in closing. “They’re doing a fantastic job and I’m here to tell you to please help and support them tonight with your donations!”
The audience followed his cue and after tallying up the score, the evening grossed over 165.000 CZK for the coffers of Chance 4 Children, breaking all previous records. This included a generous contribution from the Prague Hilton of 50.000 CZK which Michael Specking presented on stage to C4C’s founder and Chairman, Manfred Franke.
As the evening went on, the gifted musicians of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, led on by Maestro Tomas Brauner, whisked the crowd away on a musical journey through popular Hollywood movie themes, starting off with an extravagant rendition of the theme song of Hollywood blockbuster “Pirates of the Caribbean”.
“After experiencing this extraordinary orchestra under the baton of star Maestro Paul Freeman for so many consecutive times, everyone was waiting with bated breath as to how it would perform with a new conductor standing in for him”, commented Tomas Rutrle, CEO of Fujitsu Siemens CR. “I think Maestro Brauner lived up to the challenge and gave a superb performance.” Paul Freeman is currently recovering from back surgery in his native Chicago.
The Christmas spirit was readily supplied by a guest performance of the International Female Choir Viva Voce, singing traditional Christmas carols in various languages to the delight of the audience. After their performance the entire audience had a chance to participate in the customary Christmas raffle, with the chance of winning many valuable prices.
The evening came to a close with the traditional sumptuous Christmas buffet, replete with international Christmas favorites and all the trimmings, prepared by the Hilton’s Chefs de Cuisine. A fitting end to a wonderful and magic evening.
