Academy of the Concertgebouw Orchestra Jubilee Concert
Current Academy students share podium with alumni of the past twenty years to make music together for the first time
The Academy of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra is celebrating its 20th anniversary this year. A special concert will be given in the Recital Hall of The Concertgebouw on Tuesday 6 June. At this Jubilee Concert (a Close-up series event) current Academy students will join with Academy alumni from various seasons to perform a festive and vivacious chamber music programme together. The musicians play in very different orchestras and ensembles all over the world; for most of them this is the very first meeting. What they have in common is that they all trained as orchestral musicians with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, either now or in the previous decades.
Doors open at 8 p.m. and the concert begins at 8.15 p.m. Before the interval, an energetic parade of attractive pieces of music from different periods is performed. György Ligeti’s Six Bagatelles, short pieces for wind quintet, are alternated with music by Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Paul Hindemith, Luciano Berio and Caroline Shaw. After the interval, Debussy’s Syrinx segues into Richard Strauss’s moving Metamorphoses for strings, and all alumni will perform a piece by Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck together.
The Close-up concert series is organised by the Friends of the Concertgebouw and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.
Academy of the Concertgebouw Orchestra 20 Years
For twenty years now, the Academy of the Concertgebouw Orchestra has been training talented young musicians in the orchestral tradition. The Academy started in 2002 as an initiative of several orchestra members. From a small-scale project, it grew into a successful training institute for – at the moment – twelve talented musicians per season, a number that continues to grow steadily. Across an entire concert season, the Academy students get to be part of the orchestra; they play in orchestral productions, attend masterclasses and training courses, receive mental and physical coaching, and perform chamber music concerts in fabulous locations. Some of the special fixed elements of the programme in recent years are a three-day workshop at the Visio school for blind and visually impaired children and an exchange programme with the Academy of the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.
Successful institute
The musicians of the Jubilee Concert include two of the earliest Academy students, violinist Benjamin Scherer Quesada and cellist Theo van Lent. Since its inception, more than 100 musicians have attended the Academy. Most of them have found work in professional orchestras. No fewer than fourteen former Academy students are currently musicians of the Concertgebouw Orchestra. In this way the Academy is an excellent training pool for the orchestra, continuously making an important general contribution to the future of symphonic music.
Support
The Academy is fully funded by the Foundation Concertgebouworkest, which to that end receives donations from such entities as Ammodo, the Dutch Masters Foundation, the Swiss Friends of the Concertgebouworkest, the Don Quixote Foundation, De Salon, private donors and a number of commemorative funds.
The musicians
A list of the musicians taking part in the Jubilee Concert, noting their Academy season with the Concertgebouw Orchestra:
Joséphine Olech – flute; 2015-16
Maria Victoria Muñoz Zaragozá – oboe; 2022-23
Annemiek de Bruin – clarinet; 2018-19
Fiorenzo Ritorto – French horn; 2019-20
Gerard Sánchez Safont – French horn; 2022-23
Marlene Dijkstra – violin; 2019-20
Diet Tilanus – violin; 2005-06
Benjamin Scherer Quesada – violin; 2002-03
Olfje van der Klein – viola; 2019-20
Oriane Pocard Kieny – viola; 2016-17
Tom van Lent – cello; 2002-03
Louis Rodde – cello; 2010-11
Marco Behtash – double bass; 2014-15
Tim Ouwejan – trombone; 2021-22
Ramon Lormans – percussion; 2008-09 and 2009-10
with Thomas Dulfer – bassoon (finalist in this season's Dutch Classical Talent)