The Stauffer Academy, in collaboration with the European Union Youth Orchestra, will hold a special concert open to the city of Cremona on Friday 15 December, at 7 p.m., at the Sala Maffei of the Cremona Chamber of Commerce.
The artistic project is led by Andrea Obiso, Leader of the Orchestra of the Santa Cecilia National Academy in Rome, and Peter Stark, Rehearsal Director of the European Union Youth Orchestra. It involves a group of string players from the European Union Youth Orchestra, one of the most renowned and established youth orchestras in the world, together with the violinists of the Concertmaster Artist Programme, the Stauffer Academy’s course devoted to training professional orchestra leaders.
Now in its third year, the partnership between the Stauffer Academy and the EUYO is renewed in an artistic project of the highest profile. Thanks to the dynamic and active presence of such institutions, the city of Cremona confirms its ever-growing role in European higher music education.
“The key word for this concert is “sharing”: between the Stauffer Academy and EUYO, now in their third year of collaboration, between the musicians of the two musical institutions who merge in a single orchestral ensemble, and, last but not least, between Stauffer and the city of Cremona. We like the idea of an “open” academy; one that inspires appreciation and passion for great music, and shapes both musicians and audiences. They need each other: the participation of an audience is a crucial contribution to a musician’s artistic growth, making each live concert a unique and memorable experience. We like to think that this is the beginning of a new path for us, full of music made “outside the school walls” and closer to people”, says Angelica Suanno, Director of the Stauffer Academy.
At the centre of the musical programme is Arnold Schönberg’s Verklärte Nacht (‘Transfigured Night’), a symphonic poem inspired by Richard Dehmel’s eponymous poem: a poignant story of love and trust that unfolds in the lunar and ecstatic atmosphere of a starry night. In contrast with Schönberg’s sonorities, the young musicians will perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart‘s scintillating Divertimento for Strings in D major, and the Choralquartett by Jörg Widmann inspired by the classicism of Haydn. Widmann, one of the world’s most performed living composers, is the Berliner Philharmonic’s Composer in Residence for the 2023-24 season.
The concert has free admission, subject to availability, subject to reservation on the Eventbrite platform.
