Postponed for two years due to Covid, the Grafenegg Academy Orchestra finally presented the results of the work it had done under the direction of Colin Currie and Håkan Hardenberger to the public in summer 2022. 65 musicians from 25 countries intensively rehearsed programmes including two Préludes and one Late Night Session. The two evening concerts featured Bartók, Stravinsky and Helen Grime. In 2023 the famous violinist Alina Ibragimova will join the team of curators.
The composer-conductor workshop Ink Still Wet has been part of the Festival since 2011, with young talents working with the Composer in Residence to accomplish, rehearse and perform their own compositions. There’s now an extra spring phase in order to work even more intensively. The workshop is supported by new funding from Ernst von Siemens Musikstiftung and partnership with the music publisher Ricordi Berlin. Former participants Donghoon Shin, Bernd Richard Deutsch and Tomasz Skweres have been notably successful lately.
26/08 Sat
Ink Still Wet Closing Concert
Afternoon concert / 3.30 P.M. · Auditorium
Every year, before setting off on a Europe-wide tour, the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO) moves into its «summer home» at Grafenegg. It performs at the Wolkenturm and in informal Late Night Sessions in the Riding School. Awarded «European Cultural Brand of the Year» in 2020, the EUYO has many other important roles. Its current project «The Peace in Europe» consists of seven concerts in seven countries, taking it nearly to the Ukrainian border. In Café Bauhaus, EUYO musicians engage with topical themes such as climate change, equality, diversity and inclusion. The EUYO’s project «The [Uncertain] Four Seasons» is part of a global initiative to save biodiversity, reinterpreting Vivaldi’s «Four Seasons». «EUYO Frontrunners» is a new online learning programme for Europe’s musical leaders of tomorrow.
29/07 Sat
Thus Spoke Zarathustra
Evening concert / 08.00 P.M. · Wolkenturm
13/08 Sun
European Union Youth Orchestra / Manfred Honeck
Evening concert / 7.30 P.M. · Wolkenturm
