GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER MISSION STATEMENT Today the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER is considered the place for European orchestral musicians to forge their talents. Each year over two thousand talented musicians from all over Europe apply. Only the best applicants, who are determined through a strict selection procedure, are able to take part in the orchestra projects. There they work with the most important conductors and soloists of our time and appear in renowned concert halls and leading festivals in Europe and all over the world. In this manner members of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER can accumulate experiences that are decisive for their musical development and further careers as professional musicians. The GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER stands for Talent and professionalism Musicianship without borders Dedication and enthusiasm all of which makes for extraordinary concert experiences. The GMJO is the only international youth orchestra that is artistically and administratively independent of public, institutional or private-enterprise involvement and is only committed to developing the next generation of musicians. Its activity is charitable and not for profit. HISTORY The GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER was founded in 1986 on the initiative of Claudio Abbado, now its music director, along with Thomas Angyan and Hans Landesmann in Vienna. In addition to fostering young musical talent and working with young musicians, one of their most important concerns was to promote opportunities for young Austrian musicians to play music together with colleagues from the CSSR at that time and Hungary. The GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER was the first international youth orchestra to succeed in holding open auditions in the former East Block countries. Auditions have been held in the former CSSR since 1986, in former East Germany since 1988, and in the former Soviet Union as well since 1990. The aim of these auditions was and is to provide highly gifted young musicians with valuable orchestra experience working with great conductors outside their home countries. Encouraged by the political development primarily in Eastern Europe as well as by the international success of the orchestra, more and more young musicians from all over Europe soon became interested in the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER. In 1992 the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER was opened to musicians up to the age of 26 from anywhere in Europe. As the pan-European youth orchestra, it is under the patronage of the European Council. AUDITIONS At the auditions that take place every year between October and December in over twenty five European cities, a jury authorized by Claudio Abbado selects candidates from an average of two thousand applicants. REHEARSAL PHASES Before the major tours at Easter and in the summer of every year the orchestra works through the concert programmes in one of its residential cities: currently Vienna, Bozen/Bolzano, Lisbon and Interlaken. Prominent musicians from such orchestras as the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic, supervise the musicians in individual sections. The assistant conductor of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER rehearses the works with the orchestra and prepares them to the point where the tour conductor can work on the final musical details. During these work phases the young musicians gain valuable orchestral experience and receive important inspiration for their future careers. There is no fee for participating in the projects of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER; with support from its residence cities that contribute to the high costs of accommodations at the rehearsal location, the GMJO covers all costs that arise in conjunction with the rehearsal periods and the tours. CONCERTS AND TOURS The tour repertoire of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER ranges from classical music to contemporary music, with an emphasis on the major symphonic works of the romantic and the late romantic era – partly because the GMJO traditionally performes as a large orchestra with 86 members just in the string section. Every year the GMJO is invited to perform at the most prestigious concert promoters and festivals, such as the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Suntory Hall Tokyo, the Salzburg Easter Festival, the Mozarteum Argentino Buenos Aires, the Salzburg Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the BBC Proms London as well as the Lucerne Festival, where the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER has been orchestra in residence at the Easter Festival Lucerne from 1999–2003. The GMJO gives concerts in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris, the Auditorio Nacional of Madrid, the Barbican Centre in London, the Auditorio Parco della Musica in Rome, the Philharmonie in Luxembourg and the St. Petersburg Philharmonic Hall, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the Cologne Philharmonie, the Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele and the Berliner Festwochen. In recent years, the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER has been able to realize several widely acclaimed major projects, including a European tour with Arnold Schoenberg's Gurre-Lieder conducted by Claudio Abbado (1996) and a Summer Tour in 2001 with Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 8 conducted by Franz Welser-Möst (the first major tour with this work ever). The first opera project came to fruition in 1998, conducted by Pierre Boulez and directed by Pina Bausch (Bartók: Bluebeard´s Castle), in 1999 there was a major tour of North and South America and a co-operation with the Tanglewood Music Center of the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Claudio Abbado and Seiji Ozawa. The special concert in Sarajevo in April 1997 was the first concert to take place in Bosnia after the war. In summer 2002, the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER performed Wagner's Parsifal with great success, conducted by Claudio Abbado and directed by Peter Stein at the Edinburgh Festival. The GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER – under the baton of Pierre Boulez – visited Japan for the first time during the Easter tour of 2003. In 2007, the GMJO went on tour with Philippe Jordan to Argentina and Brazil. As sole guest orchestra the GMJO played alongside the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at the Mahler-Feest Amsterdam in 1995; the GMJO was also a guest at the Berliner Festwochen 1999, where the complete works of Gustav Mahler were performed. ACHIEVEMENTS Today, the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER is regarded as the leading youth orchestra in the world. In recognition of its activities the orchestra received the European Orchestra Prize by the European Cultural Foundation in April 2007. Former members can be found today in virtually all great European orchestras, frequently in first positions – for example with the Vienna Philharmonic, the Berliner Philharmonic, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchestra Leipzig, the London Symphony Orchestra or the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, with opera house orchestras in Zurich, Paris, Barcelona, Helsinki, Rome and Budapest, but also with chamber orchestras such as Kremerata Baltica, the Camerata Salzburg or the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO), a professional chamber orchestra made up of former members of the GMJO was founded in 1996 / 97. Numerous former and active members of the GMJO play in the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, founded by Claudio Abbado in 2003, as well as in the Orchestra Mozart. There are numerous chamber music associations and ensembles founded by former members of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER, from the Clemente Trio and the Vienna Piano Trio to the Miro Ensemble. In addition, the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER has launched some now world-famous artists – conductors as well as soloists – on their careers: The first assistant conductors of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER included Franz Welser-Möst, Manfred Honeck and Marc Albrecht; Renaud and Gautier Capuçon were also members of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER, as was Alison Balsom. Numerous leading orchestras maintain a cooperative arrangement with the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER with regard to auditions and vacant positions, for example the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and its chief conductor Mariss Jansons and the Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester with Ingo Metzmacher as well as the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden. ORCHESTRA ACADEMY At Claudio Abbado's suggestion, the establishment of an orchestra academy was initiated in 1994. This academy offers scholarships for a limited period to musicians of the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER, in order to enable the students to concentrate fully on their musical training. In addition, the foundation "Gustav Mahler – Music and Youth" was established in 1999 in Bolzano, again on the initiative of Claudio Abbado. The foundation offers various master courses – from chamber music to audition preparation – for scholarship-holders from the GUSTAV MAHLER JUGENDORCHESTER. Similar projects have been established in Ferrera (since 2000) and Potenza (since 2005). … SOME OF THE ARTISTS WHO HAVE WORKED WITH THE GMJO: Conductors Claudio Abbado Myung-Whun Chung Manfred Honeck Christoph Mueller Marc Albrecht Sir Colin Davis Mariss Jansons Kent Nagano Serge Baudo Péter Eötvös Neeme Järvi Václav Neumann Herbert Blomstedt Iván Fischer Philippe Jordan Jonathan Nott Pierre Boulez Daniele Gatti James Judd Seiji Ozawa Semyon Bychkov Michael Gielen Sir Neville Marriner Stefan Anton Reck Riccardo Chailly Bernard Haitink Ingo Metzmacher Franz Welser-Möst Vocalists Thomas Allen Thomas Hampson Anatolij Kotscherga Thomas Moser Juliane Banse