The European Music Campus - Youth, Music and Renewal at the Heart of Europe

European Union Youth Orchestra in Berlin, 2013

The European Union Youth Orchestra, in partnership with the Grafenegg Festival in Austria, has announced the launch of The European Music Campus. Starting in Summer 2014 this is promised to be an innovatory new centre for Europe's talented young musicians. Each year, the European Music Campus will run throughout the summer season as part of a new residency of the EUYO at Grafenegg, bringing great musicians and thinkers from around the world to Grafenegg to participate in a series of workshops, seminars, open rehearsals and performances, and establishing a landmark campus at the heart of Europe. The first sessions in Summer 2014 will see the European Union Youth Orchestra conducted by Semyon Bychkov.

The first edition of the European Music Campus will focus on Looking East in Europe, towards the former Soviet Union and to the countries which once seemed to be on the opposite side of Europe. Russian conductor Semyon Bychkov will conduct the European Union Youth Orchestra in Shostakovich's Symphony No. 4 as part of the summer festival and lead the Campus debate.

Using Shostakovich’s symphony as a text for the activities of the Campus, a series of open rehearsals, new format concerts, talks and debates will shine a critical light on the last half century of European integration in eastern Europe, in the process creating a campus that is a combination of summer university, festival and music school, thronging with young people learning and performing. This first edition of the European Music Campus will welcome a selection of young musicians from local Austrian and Eastern European conservatories to Grafenegg and include informal performances, master classes, and open rehearsals.

The European Union Youth Orchestra is composed of young musicians from all 28 European Union Member States, who audition every year for a chance to join the orchestra. It was founded in 1976 by Lionel and Joy Bryer, and since then has developed into one of the world’s most prestigious and dynamic orchestras, providing an bridge between music colleges and the professional music world for almost 3,000 alumni. You can see them in action on YouTube.

The Grafenegg Festival is based at Grafenegg Castle near Vienna in Austria. The festival started in 2007 and its current artistic director is Rudolf Buchbinder.

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