The Internationale Junge Orchesterakademie, 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.
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 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. 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.
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, Selb, Leipzig and Bielefeld. The Internationale Junge Orchesterakademie records its concert program professionally. Since 2006 the recordings are made in co-production with the Bayerischer Rundfunk. 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, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iraq, Israel, Japan, North Korea, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Palestine, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, Republic of Belarus, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Sweden, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, the Ukraine, Hungary, Uzbekistan, Taiwan, Turkey, USA, Vietnam.
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.
