Harmony in the EU? The European Union Youth Orchestra Shows us how

Published on May 27, 2014

Do­mi­nik from Ger­many, Babis from Greece, Pa­trycia from Spain, and Vilém and Radka from the Czech Re­pub­lic all have a rigid sched­ule. As mem­bers of the EUYO they didn't come to Greece for the swim­ming op­por­tu­ni­ties, but to com­plete a re­mark­able pro­gramme dur­ing their one-week stay in Thes­sa­lo­ni­ca: Re­hearsals, a con­cert in the evening, two the follow­ing morn­ing for chil­dren and young peo­ple and a trip to a night­club in the evening. In ad­di­tion, they ex­plain to groups of schoolchil­dren ex­actly what kind of in­stru­ments they have and how they work.

They all have one thing in com­mon: They play in the Eu­ro­pean Union Youth Or­ches­tra (EUYO), com­posed of up to 140 young up-and-com­ing mu­si­cians from (by now) all 28 Mem­ber States of the Eu­ro­pean Union, who tour twice a year. This spring they trav­elled to Abu Dhabi, where no less than Vla­di­mir Ash­kena­zy was on the con­duc­tor's stand and EU­YO-Alum­ni and star­ cel­list Gar­tier Ca­pu­con per­formed with the or­ches­tra. The open­ing con­cert took place in Thes­sa­lo­ni­ca where, be­sides the music, it was all about com­ing to­gether.

In re­sponse to my ques­tions con­cern­ing their at­ti­tude to Eu­rope, whether this was an issue when they au­di­tioned for the or­ches­tra and whether they see them­selves as Eu­ro­pean or not, at first I re­ceive a con­fused look. 'It's re­ally just about the music,' says Babis, a music teacher from Athens. 'It's sim­ply a good or­ches­tra. In Graz, where I study, we al­ways play with peo­ple from all over the world, so for me it's com­pletely nor­mal', adds Pa­trycia, a cel­list from Ma­drid. Tak­ing Eu­rope for granted like this sur­prises me, and Char­lot­te, PR per­son and or­gan­i­sa­tional pivot and linch­pin for the or­ches­tra no­tices my dis­ap­point­ment: 'We al­ways say that the or­ches­tra is a metaphor for how the EU should work. It cre­ates har­mony and shows the best of all Eu­ro­pean na­tions.'

"We don't sit around and dis­cuss pol­i­tics"

That sounds more like a well-worded an­swer, al­though it is not the the­o­ret­i­cal idea which gives the or­ches­tra its par­tic­u­lar aura, but rather the re­laxed in­ter­ac­tion among the mu­si­cians. Pol­i­tics is a side issue. To a greater de­gree, they put into prac­tice what Brus­sels so des­per­ately strives for: di­rect ex­change, en­coun­ters and (pro­fes­sional) co­op­er­a­tion. 'We see a lot when we're trav­el­ling', says con­tra­bassist Do­mi­nik, who would de­fine him­self as Bavar­ian rather than Ger­man. 'And in doing so, they ex­change views', adds Char­lot­te. 'We don't sit around and dis­cuss pol­i­tics. It wouldn't make any sense. But I no­tice how they learn from one an­other on a cul­tural level. They ask ques­tions, for ex­am­ple about all the graf­fiti we see here in Greece, and they get an­swers. And then an in­ter­cul­tural di­a­logue is born.'

music and eu­rope going hand in hand

This morn­ing, classes of school­children are being hosted in the con­cert hall in Thes­sa­lo­ni­ca, hav­ing been in­vited to a spe­cial event by EUYO. A host in­tro­duces the in­di­vid­ual na­tions of the or­ches­tra. Fre­netic ap­plause for the Greek mu­si­cians, scat­tered boos for the Ger­mans. Even among Greeks younger than 16, the cri­sis man­age­ment of the Ger­man gov­ern­ment has made it­self felt.

But then the music has its say and dis­solves every­day pol­i­tics into eu­phony. A boy and a girl from the au­di­ence are called up to the stage and give con­duct­ing a go.  The sym­bol­ism of the ini­tia­tive is found when one con­sid­ers the back­drop; we are talk­ing about a coun­try be­long­ing to a lost gen­er­a­tion where youth un­em­ploy­ment has gone be­yond the 60% mark. After the con­cert the mu­si­cians split up and show their in­stru­ments to in­di­vid­ual groups of school­child­ren. 'They thought that up them­selves', ex­plains Char­lotte, while the chil­dren gaze at the vi­o­lins and cel­los, spell­bound, or de­light in the pre­pos­ter­ous sounds peo­ple can make with wind in­stru­ments. 

J.N. Hum­mel's Trum­pet Con­certo in­ter­preted by the Eu­ro­pean Youth Or­ches­tra (2012). 

The EUYO is a tal­ent pool which com­bines artis­tic pro­fes­sion­al­ism with a sense of re­spon­s­ibil­ity for cul­ture and so­ci­ety. Far from the po­lit­i­cal band­stand of Brus­sels, Berlin or Lon­don, the young mu­si­cians are liv­ing out a re­al­ity which is ex­em­plary for what Eu­rope could be. Their in­ter­ac­tions with one an­other con­tain no con­tra­dic­tions be­tween the var­i­ous na­tional and re­gional iden­ti­ties and the Eu­ro­pean con­cept. 'When I'm in Spain, I feel like a Eu­ro­pean, and when I'm abroad I see my­self as Span­ish', ex­plains cel­list Pa­trycia dur­ing the in­ter­view. One thing above all is clear: Pol­i­tics is not sim­ply an ad­min­is­tra­tive deed; first and fore­most it emerges when co­op­er­a­tion and togeth­er­ness are ex­pe­ri­enced.

This ar­ti­cle was first pub­lished on 28th April 2014 at www.​eu­dys­see.​net. 

Translated from Einklang in der EU? Das European Union Youth Orchestra zeigt wie