European Union Youth Orchestra

International

Their regular performances at Young Euro Classic have left no room for doubt: this orchestra, founded in 1978, can lay claim to being the European youth orchestra par excellence, especially given the fact that it enjoys the patronage of the European Commission and the fact that it makes a principle of bringing together young musicians from all 27 member states of the European Union.

Some of the elite of the profession have been among the orchestra’s conductors, including Sir Georg Solti, Herbert von Karajan and Carlo Maria Giulini as well as Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim and Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

The 110 musicians who make up the orchestra are selected from the more than 1,000 candidates between 14 and 23 years of age who take part in auditions in their home countries each year. And each year, too, the “old” members of the orchestra have to take part in an audition together with the “newcomers” in order to secure a place in the ensemble.