Striking chords for Europe

Which orchestras receive EU funding and what makes them distinctive?

Music is perhaps the only current competitor to English as the common language of Europ. And anyone who attended concerts of jazz or classical music over Christmas – and bought a programme – will have noticed how international many ensembles now are. The EU nonetheless feels that it should use its cultural policy to promote the internationalisation of European music.

The European Commission provides financial support to five orchestras – two chamber orchestras, a baroque orchestra, a youth orchestra and a jazz orchestra – chosen since 2007 through a competitive process with three specific criteria: to promote cross-border mobility; to encourage the international circulation of cultural and artistic output; and to foster intercultural dialogue.

“Trans-national mobility is increasingly important to artists’ careers,” says Ann Branch, head of the unit for the Commission’s culture programme, and the EU can help prepare musicians. She draws an analogy with the Erasmus programme for education, as the orchestras give players an opportunity to travel to other EU countries, play with musicians of different nationalities and establish international contacts. “This kind of experience can be a valuable learning experience, but it can also help create professional opportunities that are valuable for their future careers,” she says.

Each group has its own character and places varying demands on musicians (they meet up to play as often as every month or only once a year), but all of them are made up of musicians from across the EU – to qualify for funding, at least seven countries must be represented. Most of the ensembles are aimed at professionals-to-be or professionals at the start of their careers.

Each of the orchestras has a three-year agreement under which they receive an annual EU operating grant each year, subject to the approval of their annual work plan. The maximum rate of EU co-financing is 80% – or, in other words, the orchestras, none of which are profit-making organisations, must find at least 20% of the funds from elsewhere. This can come from fund-raising activities, their own resources, or by requesting grants from other organisations such as local, regional or national authorities or foundations. In 2010, the amount of EU funding provided for these orchestras – ‘cultural ambassadors’, as it views them – ranged from €147,380 for the European Union Chamber Orchestra (or about 27% of its funding) to €600,000 for the European Union Youth Orchestra (or just under 40% of its funding).

Independent experts are currently selecting who will be funded for the next three-year period, from 2011 to 2013; the results will be known early in 2011.

European Jazz Orchestra

The European Jazz Orchestra (EJO) – or, as it subtitles itself, ‘Swinging Europe’ – re-forms itself each year, with new musicians and a new conductor.

Erik Moseholm, the musical brain behind the EJO since the idea of an orchestra was planted in 1994, says that the EJO has an age limit of 30 for the players, but conductors can be of any age as long as they are “the best in Europe”. There is also a trainee band for students up to the age of 20, says the Dane.

The focus for the EJO is an annual three-week project, which includes four days of rehearsals in Denmark and a tour around Europe, visiting at least six countries.

“It means a lot to the musicians to tour around,” Moseholm says. “They’re musicians who have good positions with radio bands or orchestras. This tour increases their visibility, allows them to make contacts around Europe, improves their work possibilities.”

Moseholm, who is now in his 80s and has toured worldwide playing double bass with jazz bands and classical orchestras, also gives the players lessons in other aspects of the life of professional musicians, such as how to behave on stage and how to communicate. He plans to retire next year but has already ensured his knowledge and experience will continue to be passed on, by writing a book entitled “Be on time”, which he refers to as “a Bible for young musicians”.

European Union Youth Orchestra

It is extremely competitive to get in to the European Union Youth Orchestra, but those who secure a place enjoy almost a guarantee of a professional musical career. More than 4,000 candidates aged between 14 and 24 take part in the annual EU-wide auditions, in which current orchestra members have to re-audition along with new applicants; up to 140 make the cut. More than 90% of them will go on to become professional musicians.

The orchestra’s quality is partly reflected in the conductors and directors it has attracted since it was set up in 1978. Its founding music director was Claudio Abbado, who was succeeded by Bernard Haitink in 1994, who in turn handed over to Vladimir Ashkenazy in 2000. Guest conductors have included Herbert von Karajan, Mstislav Rostropovich and Georg Solti.

The EUYO “is one of the best schools to become an orchestral musician”, says Romain Guyot, a former member and now a professional clarinettist. “It opened my ears, my eyes, my mind. It built my ideal of being a musician.”

European Union Baroque Orchestra

The European Union Baroque Orchestra (EUBO) acts as a way to help young players acquire the experience needed to play in a professional group.

“It’s a kind of Catch-22. Experience is required but you cannot get experience until you have actually tried it,” says Lars Ulrik Mortensen, a Dane who has been EUBO’s musical director since 2004. “That is where the EUBO steps in, trying to provide this very special orchestral experience.”

That experience is intense. Each year a new orchestra of young players is selected to play a single season of about 30 performances throughout Europe, for which there are rehearsals, tours and performances under the guidance of some of the world’s leading baroque specialists. With only a couple of dozen players in the ensemble, the musicians get to know each other very well during the months that they play together and often stay in touch later in their professional careers.

Former EUBO students play in every major professional baroque ensemble in the world, according to the orchestra’s website, including the Academy of Ancient Music and the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra.

European Union Chamber Orchestra

The European Union Chamber Orchestra, whose patron is Queen Sofia of Spain, is made up of about 20 musicians and plays only a chamber orchestra repertoire.

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“It is real chamber music, with usually no conductor”, says the orchestra’s director-general, Ambrose Miller. It is “really exciting for musicians, with top-level directors and the chance to play concertos themselves on some occasions”.

The group aims to take on new young professional players each year, giving them the opportunity to work alongside more experienced musicians. EUCO, which was the first European orchestra to give concerts in Belize and Cuba, has an annual schedule of about 60 concerts on seven or eight tours worldwide.

Entry into the orchestra is usually by audition; sometimes, though, a player is recommended and serves a trial tour instead of an audition. When asked which orchestras its musicians have gone on to play with, Miller reels off “the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Philharmonia [Orchestra in London], the BBC Symphony Orchestra, La Scala Milan, the City of London Sinfonia, to mention only a few. It’s a bit difficult to keep track of them all,” he says.

Chamber Orchestra of Europe

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe, whose logo is a red bird representing the lightness, brightness and colour of the sound the orchestra aspires to, is a professional orchestra whose members’ ages range from their 20s to their 50s. They play about a dozen programmes a year, which equates to approximately one week of rehearsing and touring every month. In between, the musicians return to their parallel professional lives, be it as soloists, players in other ensembles or music teachers.

Speaking after a chamber recital this summer by five of the orchestra’s members, principal violinist Lorenza Borrani told the Brussels audience how all the players find it inspiring and motivating to play with other top musicians and some of the world’s greatest conductors in this orchestra. “It allows us to pass on some of that inspiration to others when we return to our ordinary lives,” she said.

The orchestra was founded in 1981 by a group of young musicians who wanted to continue working together after graduating from the European Union Youth Orchestra. Of the 38 original members, 18 still play with the orchestra. For many players in the Youth Orchestra, it remains a dream to move onto this chamber orchestra, whose current season includes concerts at New York’s Lincoln Center, the Lucerne Festival with Bernard Haitink conducting, and La Scala in Milan under the baton of Vladimir Ashkenazy.

Anna Jenkinson is a freelance journalist based in Brussels.