Internationale Junge Orchesterakademie

The Internationale Junge Orchesterakademie (IJOA), or International Youth Orchestra Academy, is an international range orchestra for young people, based in Pleystein, Bavaria. It has special associations with the Bayreuth Easter Festival. The organization has three aims: to help and support children suffering from cancer in those regions and areas where the concerts of the IJOA orchestra take place; the promotion of young musicians; and to develop the international understanding of the musicians, who come from different backgrounds from all over the world, and meet to make music and play together in one orchestra.

Background

The Academy was founded in 1994 by Prof. Dr. Ulrich S. Schubert and Dr. Andreas Göldel in co-operation with the director Prof. August Everding and the Australian conductor Sir Charles Mackerras. Each year the Academy invites international applications, and forms an orchestra of about 110 musicians from over 30 nations worldwide.

Workshops

In workshops lasting two weeks, the intended concert programme is studied by the young musicians in their orchestral sections, under the guidance of coaches who are themselves renowned musicians. The coaches are drawn from the Musik Hochschule in Cologne, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the ROS Frankfurt-am-Main, the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra.

During the two weeks' workshop, the players then also come together in "tutti" rehearsals with the conductor. The conductors include Miguel Gómez-Martínez, Christoph Ulrich Meier and Bob Ross. Since the foundation, the Orchestra has given about 260 concerts in Germany and Europe. The programme usually includes (among other works) a great symphonic piece of the 19th century.

The young musicians also have the opportunity to play in the opera orchestra - the Bayreuth Easter Festival presented an opera for the first time in 2007, conducted and directed by Christoph Ulrich Meier - or at Festival-Brass (directed and conducted by Bob Ross, Blechschaden). In addition there are Jazz and Salon orchestra workshops.
Scholarships
Talented musicians who cannot afford to participate in the Academy have the opportunity to obtain a scholarship. Most of the scholarships are made possible by the "Friends of the Bayreuth Easter Festival" (“Freunde des Bayreuther Osterfestivals e.V”).

Performance and Recording

After the workshop the IJOA orchestra goes on tour. The pieces studied during the workshop will be played, among other places, in Bayreuth (Margravial Opera House), Selb (Rosenthal-Theater), Leipzig (Thomaskirche) and Bielefeld (Neustädter Marienkirche).

The Internationale Junge Orchesterakademie records its concert program professionally. Since 2006 the recordings are made in co-production with the Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting). The proceeds of the CD are applied to the purposes of the social and cultural foundation of the Internationale Junge Orchesterakademie.

Participating nationalities (up to October 2007)

Albania, Argentina, Armenia, Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Republic of Belarus, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Spain, South Korea, the Ukraine, Hungary, Uzbekistan, Taiwan, Turkey, USA, Vietnam.

CDs of the IJOA

*CD 2007 Tchaikowsky Symphony No 5; J.S. Bach - Violin concerto in A minor (BWV 1041) (Co-production with the Bayerischer Rundfunk).
*CD 2006 Bruckner - Symphony No 7 (Co-production with the Bayerischer Rundfunk).
*CD 2005 Bruckner - Symphony No 4; Wagner - Prelude to "Tannhäuser".
*CD 2004 Mahler - Symphony No 2, "Resurrection."
*CD 2003 Wagner - Overture to "Lohengrin"; Mahler - "Adagio" from Symphony No 5; Tchaikowsky - Symphony No 4.
*CD 2003 Salon orchestra and Jazz.
*CD 2002 Wagner - Overture to "Tannhäuser"; Mahler - Songs from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn"; Dvořák - Symphony No 8.
*CD 2001 Wagner - Overture to "Der fliegende Holländer"; Mahler - Songs from "Des Knaben Wunderhorn"; Brahms - Hungarian Dance No. 5; Dvořák - Symphony No 9, "From the New World".
*CD 2000 Wagner, Tchaikowsky, Mahler, Grieg, William Byrd, Hazell, Premru.
*CD 1999 Mozart - Overture to "The magic flute"; Mahler - Rückert-Lieder; Tchaikowsky - Symphony No 6.
*CD 1997 Mahler - Symphony No 4; Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy - Violin concerto in E minor.
*CD 1996 Mahler - Symphony No 5
*CD 1995 Brahms - Academic Festival Overture; Mahler - Symphony No. 1, "The Titan".