07:00 pm
Penderecki Youth Orchestra Poland
Carlos Miguel Prieto Conductor
Gabriela Ortiz Composer
Frederik Hanssen Introduction
KRZYSZTOF PENDERECKI · Adagietto from „Paradise Lost“ (1979)
JOHANNES BRAHMS · Symphony No. 3 in F major, Op. 90 (1883)
SILVESTRE REVUELTAS · „La noche de los Maya“ (1939)
GABRIELA ORTIZ · „Antropolis“ (German Premiere, 2019)
Playing together is more fun – this conviction is probably shared by every orchestra! The Orchestra of the Americas, however, goes one step further, inviting a second youth orchestra from Europe, the Penderecki Youth Orchestra from Poland, to share its tour. Together, they perform a programme that reflects this very collaboration between America and Europe in an exemplary manner. It opens with two works from Europe – first a homage to the great Polish composer Krzysztof Penderecki, a movement from his oratorio Paradise Lost, and then a “classic” of German romanticism, Johannes Brahms’ Third Symphony. After the interval, this is followed by one of the most colourful and spectacular orchestral works in the Latin American canon, La noche de los Maya, composed by Silvestre Revueltas in 1939. Another Mexican composed the last work: triple Grammy Award winner Gabriela Ortiz, whose career has taken off during recent years and whose orchestral work Antropolis of 2019 will receive its German premiere by the two youth orchestras united on the podium under Carlos Miguel Prieto’s baton.
Introduction talk and Q&A at 6:00 PM with Frederik Hanssen in the Werner-Otto Hall. Entry with a concert ticket.
Language: German.
The Orchestra of the Americas is part of the Orchestra of the Americas Group, which also includes a global conservatory, OAcademy and further innovative projects in the areas of music, visual arts and social entrepreneurship. Since its founding in 2002, the Orchestra of the Americas has given more than 400 concerts in 35 countries in the Americas, Europe and Asia. The orchestra has reached more than 15 million people through television and radio broadcasts, recordings, print and television features – including three full-length documentary films dedicated to the orchestra. Its members are between 18 and 30 years of age and come from more than 30 countries of the entire western world; no less than 6,000 young talents apply every year for the 80 spots in the orchestra. Among the composers in residence the Orchestra of the Americas has worked with are Philip Glass (2010 & 2011), Tan Dun (2013), Nicolas Gilbert (2015), Arvo Pärt (2016), Gabriela Montero (2017) and Gabriela Ortiz (2019).
The Penderecki Youth Orchestra (PYO) represents the central idea behind the founding and mission of the Krzysztof Penderecki European Centre for Music in Lusławice as well as commemorating its namesake, the composer celebrated worldwide who died in Cracow in 2020. Founded in 2013, the PYO brings together young and highly talented Polish musicians studying both in Poland and other European countries. Often, they are connected by a long history of education and concert programmes to Lusławice, where Krzysztof Penderecki lived from 1976 onwards. Becoming a member of PYI is a confirmation of extraordinary instrumental abilities and a unique musical personality, but also an invitation to broaden one’s artistic horizons and benefit from mutual inspiration and a shared striving for the utmost musical quality. The orchestra, which is assembled through a nomination-based system complemented by an open call, made its debut under the leadership of Yamen Saadi, concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic.
The Mexican conductor Carlos Miguel Prieto, music director the Orchestra of the Americas and OAcademy and is one of the most prominent characters in the musical life of his homeland and in the USA. From 2007 to 2022, he was chief conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México, and from 2006 to 2023, also of the Louisiana Symphony Orchestra. During this period, he conducted no less than one hundred world premieres of works by Mexican and American composers. At the moment, the 57-year-old has recently been appointed chief conductor of the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra. Prieto has been invited to guest conduct the leading American orchestras, including in Cleveland, Los Angeles and San Francisco, in Atlanta, Dallas and Washington. In Europe, he has appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Hallé Orchestra and the Spanish National Orchestra. In 2024, Prieto made a very successful debut at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London. The conductor has enjoyed a close collaboration with the Orchestra of the Americas since 2002; he also performs regularly with the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain.
Originally from Mexico City, Gabriela Ortiz has become one of the leading voices in New Music in the USA and Europe over the past years. One of the milestones in her career came in 2025, when her portrait album Revolución diamantina, recorded by the Los Angeles Philharmonic under Gustavo Dudamel’s baton, won three Grammy Awards. From large works for orchestra and chorus such as Yanga (2019), concertos such as Fractalis (2022), politically charged operas such as Only the Truth (2008), and magical chamber music works such as Altar de Muertos (1997) to intimate solo pieces such as Canto a Hanna (2005), Ortiz’ music is characterized by sophisticated composition techniques and painstaking attention to rhythm and sonic colours. Raised in a family of active performers of Latin American folk music, Gabriela Ortiz first learned to play charango and guitar, then piano. After studying at the Conservatory in Mexico City, she moved to London, where she completed a master’s degree at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama and a doctor’s degree in composition and electronic music at City University.
Frederik Hanssen, born in 1969 in Berlin, studied musicology and French philology in his hometown as well as in Clermont-Ferrand and Milan. From 1998 until the end of 2025, he worked as an editor for classical music at the Berlin newspaper Tagesspiegel. In addition to his journalistic work, he is active in music education serving as the author of programme booklets, concert moderations, and speaker for introductory lectures. Frederik Hanssen lives with his family in Berlin and Rome.