On the centennial anniversary of the Battle of Passchendaele in 2017, Belgian tourists Lien Kooijman and Bart Vanpeteghem visited the HMCS Alberni Museum and Memorial (HAMM) during the museum’s memorial event.
After hearing of the museum’s plan to produce the exhibit Innocent Eyes in summer of 2018, they immediately offered their participation of returning to Canada to perform for the Children’s Peace Concert being held by HAMM on Aug. 12 at 4 p.m. in Comox Marina Park.
Lien and Bart are not only a widely known Belgian musical duo, but they are also a couple. In Belgium they are famous for their songs about peace and war.
Living near Flanders Fields in western Belgium near the French border where the Great War raged, they are very passionate in matters of global peace.
Writing and composing alarge repertoire of moving songs, they accompany themselves on accordion, guitar, flutes, and banjo.
Their music and stories create an irresistibly beauty for audiences wherever they have appeared as their songs are performed in Flemish, French, German, and English.
The pair has granted HAMM the exclusive rights to use their song Anna as the theme song for this summer’s exhibit Innocent Eyes - war from a different perspective.
With a cheerful, mostly female band, Lien and Bart have appeared at concerts in different countries in Europe such as Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and France.
The HAMM Innocent Eyes Children’s Peace Concert is produced in part through generous funding by the Flanders State of the Art, the Flemish Government, and the Province of British Columbia.
For more information on attending this free event of HAMM or on Lien and Bart, please contact HAMM at 250-897-4611, email at mrbarth@alberniproject.org or visit alberniproject.org or lienenbart.com.