Imminent demise of the European Union Youth Orchestra..

[Nick Armstrong]

http://www.euyo.eu/discover/news/breaking-news-euyo-announces-closure/

A crying shame

[ahinton]

http://www.euyo.eu/discover/news/bre...unces-closure/

A crying shame

I've just seen this on another forum (you may guess which!) which also links to thse article.

I have just written to Charlotte Hamilton, EUYO's Development & Communications Manager at the email address provided, as follows:

"Dear Ms Hamilton,

I have just seen this dreadful news. Are there any plans for a petition to save the orchestra and does the European Commission (or whichever is the relevant authority) have an online petitioning facility as does the UK Parliament?

I look forward to your response; it will be a sad day indeed for EU if a means to reprieve cannot be found.

Kind regards,"

I've no idea what good this will do but if I receive any useful practical information I will relay it here a.s.a.p.

[teamsaint]

I wonder if there is some kind of back story to this.

Somebody must be in the know.
Gongers?

(Be interesting to know the sums involved, compared to,say, oh, I don't know, the monthly quantitative easing bill.

60/80 Bn Euros per month..Thats 60/80 BILLION. Each month.

I'll bet every single euro of support for the EUYO gets recylcled through the eurozone economies many times over.

https://next.ft.com/content/9a45a960-e6ac-11e5-a09b-1f8b0d268c39

( Loved the Prom in 2014).

[ahinton]

I've just received the following response:

She has responded promptly as follows:

Dear Alistair,

At present the ways to help are detailed here: http://www.euyo.eu/about/saveeuyo/

Please do write to the Commission. This is a very powerful way to campaign.

Kindly,

Charlotte

Charlotte Hamilton, Development & Communications Manager

European Union Youth Orchestra, 6A Pont Street, London SW1X 9EL, UK
Office Telephone: +44 20 3370 5462 ● Mobile: +44 7966 888 917
www.euyo.eu ● EUYOtweets ● EUYOVideo ● EUYOFacebook


So far, I've written to my MEP and to my MP who happens to be Chairman of the UK Culture Media and Sport Select Committee and who is a keen supporter of the arts in general and music and its performance in particular.

[vinteuil]

... well I just hope that the EUBO is safe.

http://eubo.eu/

.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Union_Baroque_Orchestra

[ahinton]

... well I just hope that the EUBO is safe.

http://eubo.eu/

Indeed.

I also note that Wiki has, for EUYO:

"Towards 2020

The EUYO performs at Young Euro Classic music festival in Berlin, August 2015. (c) Peter Adamik

In 2014 the Orchestra embarked on an innovatory partnership programme - Towards 2020 - which brings together eleven cultural and commercial organisations from ten EU countries, and thirty-five associate organisations from Europe and around the globe including Global partners in Brazil, China, India and the US. The project, co-funded by the EU’s ‘Creative Europe’ cultural funding programme, is establishing a new model to skill talented young orchestral musicians from all 28 EU Member States in a manner that responds to the changing needs of 21st century audiences and society.

T2020 involves the Orchestra in innovative training prototypes, performance programmes, digital platforms and audience models, all designed to enable cultural development, career opportunities and audience development strategies that are transferable to other cultural and creative sectors.

Founded by Joy and Lionel Bryer in 1976, the EUYO has been a Cultural Ambassador for the European Union for forty years. The EUYO’s Honorary Patrons include the Heads of Government of all of the EU’s Member States, and the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Parliament. Parliament President Martin Schulz is the EUYO’s Honorary President."


And they're going to throw this on the scrap heap?...

[ardcarp]

Oh dear, oh dear.

[greenilex]

Every youth orchestra is precious. Some are irreplaceable.

[ahinton]

I've now written to everyone named with email contact details on the link, as follows:

__________________________________________

I read this morning with horror, dismay and disbelief the news that this splendid orchestra is to cease with effect from 1 September 2016.

The outcome of its cessation will reflect adversely on the cultural life and indeed credibility of every one of EU’s 28 nation states and, if permitted to go ahead, will send the shameful message to the rest of Europe – and indeed the rest of the world – that EU has neither sufficient interest in nor care for one of its shining cultural assets. The discouragement to the musical youth of Europe that the closure of this orchestra will bring about will be as great as it will be debilitating; its effect upon the musical life of EU will be as devastating as it will be irrevocable.

Music and its performance are not luxuries but necessities for the benefit of humanity. The history of this orchestra and its enviable position as musical ambassador for the EU speaks eloquently for itself.

Wikipedia in English has the following to say about EUYO:

______________________

Towards 2020
[photograph]
The EUYO performs at Young Euro Classic music festival in Berlin, August 2015. (c) Peter Adamik

In 2014 the Orchestra embarked on an innovatory partnership programme - Towards 2020 - which brings together eleven cultural and commercial organisations from ten EU countries, and thirty-five associate organisations from Europe and around the globe including Global partners in Brazil, China, India and the US. The project, co-funded by the EU’s ‘Creative Europe’ cultural funding programme, is establishing a new model to skill talented young orchestral musicians from all 28 EU Member States in a manner that responds to the changing needs of 21st century audiences and society.

T2020 involves the Orchestra in innovative training prototypes, performance programmes, digital platforms and audience models, all designed to enable cultural development, career opportunities and audience development strategies that are transferable to other cultural and creative sectors.

Founded by Joy and Lionel Bryer in 1976, the EUYO has been a Cultural Ambassador for the European Union for forty years. The EUYO’s Honorary Patrons include the Heads of Government of all of the EU’s Member States, and the President of the European Commission and the President of the European Parliament. Parliament President Martin Schulz is the EUYO’s Honorary President.
______________________

What price this programme, let alone the remainder of the orchestra’s activities, should it be permitted to fold?

What message would this send to its joint founder, Joy Bryer?

The roll-call of distinguished musicians who have been involved with the orchestra during its 40 year history reads like a cast list of international musical superstars:

Music Directors

• Claudio Abbado 1976 - 1994
• Bernard Haitink, 1994 - 2000
• Vladimir Ashkenazy, 2000 - 2015

Conductor Laureate & Chief Conductor

• Conductor Laureate - Bernard Haitink, 2015 -
• Chief Conductor - Vasily Petrenko, 2015 -

Former Conductors

Among others: Claudio Abbado, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Daniel Barenboim, Leonard Bernstein, Herbert Blomstedt, James Conlon, Sir Colin Davis, Carlo Maria Giulini, Ivan Fischer, Bernard Haitink, Herbert von Karajan, Raphael Kubelík, Erich Leinsdorf, Lorin Maazel, Zubin Mehta, Gianandrea Noseda, Vasily Petrenko, Kurt Sanderling, Gennady Rozhdestvensky, Mstislav Rostropovich and Sir Georg Solti.

Former soloists

Among others, the EUYO has performed with Salvatore Accardo, Martha Argerich, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Emanuel Ax, Teresa Berganza, Yefim Bronfman, Renaud Capuçon, Gautier Capuçon, Kyung Wha-Chung, Diana Damrau, Placido Domingo, Isabelle Faust, Bernarda Fink, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Sir James Galway, Angela Gheorghiu, Matthias Goerne, Susan Graham, Natalia Gutman, Lynn Harrell, Barbara Hendricks, Daniel Hope, Janine Jansen, Leonidas Kavakos, Nigel Kennedy, Evgeny Kissin, Christa Ludwig, Radu Lupu, Karita Mattila, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Midori, Shlomo Mintz, Viktoria Mullova, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Jessye Norman, Murray Perahia, Itzhak Perlman, Francesco Piemontesi, Maria João Pires, Mikhail Pletnev, Margaret Price, Maurizio Pollini, Vadim Repin, Ravi Shankar, Arabella Steinbacher, Christian Tetzlaff, Alisa Weilerstein, and Pinchas Zuckerman.

Is it therefore any wonder that the orchestra has earned and maintained its enviable and excellent global reputation?


A full and sustainable reprieve of this wonderful and valuable institution is not merely a good idea; it is an essential requirement in the interests of everyone.

Yours sincerely,

Whether this will do any good or merely be shoved into a number of EU bins and/or shredders remains to be seen...

[ahinton]

[duplicate: deleted]

[Nick Armstrong]

Thanks ah for pointing up these ways to push back

I will do the same.

I've just received the following response:

She has responded promptly as follows:

Dear Alistair,

At present the ways to help are detailed here: http://www.euyo.eu/about/saveeuyo/

Please do write to the Commission. This is a very powerful way to campaign.

Kindly,

Charlotte

Charlotte Hamilton, Development & Communications Manager

European Union Youth Orchestra, 6A Pont Street, London SW1X 9EL, UK
Office Telephone: +44 20 3370 5462 ● Mobile: +44 7966 888 917
www.euyo.eu ● EUYOtweets ● EUYOVideo ● EUYOFacebook


So far, I've written to my MEP and to my MP who happens to be Chairman of the UK Culture Media and Sport Select Committee and who is a keen supporter of the arts in general and music and its performance in particular.

[Serial_Apologist]

Many thanks indeed for drawing this terrible news to our attention.

(I wonder what this might mean for the future of the EBU Big Band
http://www.swinging-europe.dk/DSISE/...azz-orchestra/)

[Nick Armstrong]

Many thanks indeed for drawing this terrible news to our attention.

Pause for personal anecdote - it was a schoolfriend, who played violin in the very first ECYO (as it was then called) under Claudio Abbado, who in 1976 lent me the LP of Shostakovich 15 (Ormandy/Philly) which set me on the musical path that leads to now. I've always felt this amazing institution was pretty central to cultural life (mine and in general) ever since....

[ahinton]

Pause for personal anecdote - it was a schoolfriend, who played violin in the very first ECYO (as it was then called) under Claudio Abbado, who in 1976 lent me the LP of Shostakovich 15 (Ormandy/Philly) which set me on the musical path that leads to now. I've always felt this amazing institution was pretty central to cultural life (mine and in general) ever since....

In that conclusion I have every confidence that you are far from alone...

[BBMmk2]