Who wants a touring orchestra that just turns up, plays, and goes home? Graham Sheffield considers the role of orchestras in international cultural relations.
On the face of it, symphony orchestras are a strange medium in which to conduct contemporary international cultural relations. They are outsized beasts: expensive to transport, often playing standard classical repertoire from nations unconnected with the orchestra itself; and dissociated from the life of the community in which they are appearing.
The subject came to the fore a few weeks ago when one of the most admired examples of orchestral cultural diplomacy, the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) announced it was closing due to withdrawal of its EU subsidy – a poor decision, to say the least, and one which it was good to see reversed following Jean-Claude Juncker’s intervention. The EUYO’s advantage, rather like Daniel Barenboim’s West-East Divan Orchestra, is that its core membership is multi-cultural; crossing boundaries and religions in a way that more conventional bands can’t quite match – keeping bridges open to Russia, for example, and even accommodating Armenian and Azerbaijani musicians, despite the traumatic history between those two nations. Like Barenboim, Marshall Marcus, the CEO of the EUYO, would emphasise that ‘It isn’t an orchestra for peace, but an orchestra against ignorance... Keep reading on Rhinegold
On the face of it, symphony orchestras are a strange medium in which to conduct contemporary international cultural relations. They are outsized beasts: expensive to transport, often playing standard classical repertoire from nations unconnected with the orchestra itself; and dissociated from the life of the community in which they are appearing.
The subject came to the fore a few weeks ago when one of the most admired examples of orchestral cultural diplomacy, the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) announced it was closing due to withdrawal of its EU subsidy – a poor decision, to say the least, and one which it was good to see reversed following Jean-Claude Juncker’s intervention. The EUYO’s advantage, rather like Daniel Barenboim’s West-East Divan Orchestra, is that its core membership is multi-cultural; crossing boundaries and religions in a way that more conventional bands can’t quite match – keeping bridges open to Russia, for example, and even accommodating Armenian and Azerbaijani musicians, despite the traumatic history between those two nations. Like Barenboim, Marshall Marcus, the CEO of the EUYO, would emphasise that ‘It isn’t an orchestra for peace, but an orchestra against ignorance... Keep reading on Rhinegold