© MUTESOUVENIR | Kai Bienert
After its two successful appearances at Young Euro Classic in 2015 and 2017, the Portuguese youth orchestra Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa – JOP – now returns to Berlin’s Konzerthaus for a third time. Founded and financed by the Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa (OCP), JOP has developed since its founding in 2010 from a chamber orchestra with 20 strings into a full symphony orchestra with over 80 musicians. They are between 14 and 23 years old and come together for two rehearsal and concert periods a year, around Easter and in the summer. Master classes and concerts take place regularly all over Portugal; the orchestra also engages in social projects with its young orchestra musicians. Apart from its appearances at major national music festivals in Portugal, JOP also undertook a concert tour to Romania in 2016, where it returns in 2019 as well.
Konzerthaus, Berlin
© WDR/Herby Sachs
Journalist
“Factually competent, analytically critical, clearly expressive,” the Medium Magazin described him when naming him “Journalist of the Year” in 2012. For many years, Krause was the face of Brussels on the ARD channels. For 20 years he reported from Europe’s capital. Now he is a true Berliner. Krause, born in Lüneburg, began his career as a reporter for newspapers, joined the WDR in Düsseldorf in 1982 and became the ARD Correspondent in Bonn from 1985 to 1990. In 1990 he finally landed where he belonged: in Brussels. With refreshing openness, he recounts: “At the time, I had no particular views on the European Community. I was simply young and curious.” After an intermezzo as a Deputy Studio Director in Bonn and Head of Programming for the WDR TV in Cologne in 2000, Brussel welcomed him back in 2001 – for 15 years, the rest of his professional life. Today he does not miss television, but Europe has not let him go: he occasionally works as an advisor and speaker on European affairs.
© Patrícia Andrade
The Portuguese conductor Pedro Carneiro, born in the capital of Lisbon in 1975, has pursued a double career in music. On the one hand, he is an internationally celebrated percussionist who performs at all the major concert halls between the USA, Japan and Australia. More than 100 world premieres demonstrate his special position as a member of the musical avant-garde, as do his collaborations with the Arditti Quartet, the Tokyo String Quartet and the Chilingirian Quartet. The percussionist has a special love for improvisation, often in combination with live electronics or other innovative technologies. On the other hand, Carneiro has launched a career as a conductor during recent years. The Portuguese Chamber Orchestra (Orquestra de Câmara Portuguesa) was founded at his initiative and has its own concert series at the Centro Cultural de Belém in Lisbon. Not least, the Portuguese multi-talent composes orchestral and chamber music and directs the percussion festival “Bang Crash Splash!” in Lisbon.
© Rui Peralta
The roots of the inclusive ensemble “Notas de Contacto” lie in the 2009 cooperation between the Portuguese Chamber Orchestra OCP and the association “Cercioeiras”, which is dedicated to the reintegration of people with handicaps. Supported by the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon, this developed into a regular ensemble starting in 2013, which gives its own concerts and also works with the OCP and the National Portuguese Youth Orchestra (JOP). The members of Notas de Contacto participate in regular rehearsals and master classes on classical western music and also non-European and contemporary music styles. In their own workshops, the instruments are adapted to the needs of the musicians; compositions are also newly arranged or commissioned from composers directly by the ensemble.
"Prélude à l'unission", First Movement from the Suite for Orchestra No. 1 Op. 9 (1903)
"Alcance | Reach" (World Premiere)
Symphony No. 7 in A Major Op. 92 (1812)
7 pm: Pre-Concert Talk with Anne Kussmaul at the Werner-Otto-Saal
Free admission with concert ticket
We’re celebrating. Celebrate with us! At the traditional AUDIENCE PARTY after the concert.
PROGRAMME
2015 – 2017 – 2019: for the third time, the Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa, the National Portuguese Youth Orchestra, can be heard at Young Euro Classic under the baton of Pedro Carneiro. Curiosity and innovation are the watchwords of this orchestra, which is why it presents two premieres rolled into one: the Portuguese composer João Godinho has written a brand-new piece for this Berlin performance. Entitled Alcance | Reach, it combines the youth orchestra and the inclusive ensemble “Notas de Contacto” – in the spirit of encounters, exchange and peaceful coexistence which has always been the motto of Young Euro Classic. After the interval, the Portuguese musicians delve into Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, which the 41-year-old composer created as a work of youthful high temperament and spirit. Originally conceived as a manifesto against Napoleon, the Symphony in A Major still fascinates us today with its elementary energy, which leaps from every single measure.
