Orchestra project: Young International Orchestra

Program:
Aaron Copland (1900 - 1990)
El Salón México

Erich Wolfgang Korngold (1897 - 1957)
Violin Concerto in D major op. 35, Soloist: Hans Christian Aarvik

Antonín Leopold Dvořák (1841 - 1904)
Symphony No. 9 in E minor op. 95 "From the New World"

Project information:
This year's orchestra line-up consists of students from the Emils Darzin Music School in Riga (Latvia), the State Conservatory and Art University in Graz (Austria), and MUBA - School of Music and Ballet in Tallinn (Estonia), as well as our talents from the Young Academy Rostock. Conductor Daniel Geiss, General Music Director of the Neubrandenburg Philharmonic Orchestra and the Neustrelitz State Theatre since September 2023, will be the musical director. The soloist will be Estonian violinist Hans Christian Aavik (Kronberg Academy Estonia).

The orchestra project 2024 is entitled "Resonating Exile" and deals with the topic of exile, which has not stopped at artists and musicians in the past - as it does today. In terms of content and art, the young people will work together to explore the impact that expulsion for political reasons can have in the artistic field, in this case music, in the past and present beyond national borders.

One of the pieces played will be the violin concerto by the Jewish composer E. W. Korngold, who fled from the National Socialists to America in 1938 and composed the music that can be heard in concert halls around the world today. In addition to the pure orchestral work, the young people are introduced to the subject in an age-appropriate way. The aim is a combination of musical professionalization and sensitization to the challenges that musicians will have to face again and again in the future, as well as a focus on the positive effects of making music together - beyond the boundaries of language and national borders.

YIO in general:

The Young Orchestra Riga-Rostock was founded in autumn 2018 and played for the first time at the Rostock University of Music and Performing Arts to mark the tenth anniversary of YARO.

Prof. Stephan Imorde, Director of the Young Academy Rostock, recalls: "During a visit to Riga, I got to know the Emil Darzin Special School and was immediately convinced that I had found an ideal partner on an international level. The values, quality and high artistic standards fit in perfectly with YARO's mission statement. All joint activities to date have shown how valuable this collaboration has already become for us."

The international youth orchestra is made up of Latvian musicians from the Emil Darzin Music School in Riga and German early-stage students as well as talented musicians from the YARO network - the age range is between 12 and 19. The vision of inspiring children and young people for music and connecting talents internationally is constantly being expanded - in 2019, for example, we enabled a group of musicians from St. Petersburg to join the orchestra and are planning to hold rehearsal phases in Riga. There are also plans to facilitate additional national and international performance opportunities. In 2021, the orchestra was supplemented by a string delegation from Graz, Austria, as well as by early students from other German music academies. In 2022, the work phase will take place in Latvia for the first time, with the orchestra consisting of equal numbers of musicians from Austria, Latvia and Germany - this new cooperation also led to the name change to the Young International Orchestra.

The intercultural encounter made possible by this orchestra composition is of lasting importance for the young talents, who make connections beyond national borders and language barriers and get to know the joint development of musical works as the basis for international cooperation.