Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra
International
The Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra is newly formed as international youth orchestra every year. Young musicians from all over the world meet during summer to participate in the international orchestral academy that takes place as part of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, founded in 1987 by Leonard Bernstein. Young musicians qualifying in one of the 35 auditions in North and South America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East are offered the chance to rehearse and perform great orchestral works with famous conductors. Preliminary study of the works takes place in sectional rehearsals under the direction of experienced tutors from leading German orchestras. As well as chief conductor Christoph Eschenbach, the likes of Christoph von Dohnányi, Kent Nagano, Iván Fischer, Semyon Bychkov and Christopher Hogwood have worked regularly with the Festival Orchestra. Apart from the concerts performed during the ensemble’s own festival, tours regularly take the orchestra to the major European musical centres, as well as the US. Together with the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Choir, performance tours took musicians to the “Stars of the White Nights” festival in St. Petersburg in 2009, to the Istanbul Festival in Turkey in 2011, to the Granada Festival in Spain and the Ljubljana Festival in Slovenia. The orchestra has been performing at the Young Euro Classic festival for years now, and has in the meantime built up a loyal following.
