About
The National Youth Orchestra (NJO) is a Dutch orchestra. It gives young musicians who prepare for professional practice the opportunity to gain high-level experience in all sorts of teamwork. They can work with the best (inter) national conductors and soloists.
Background
The orchestras and ensembles consist of young people between 18 and 26 years old. Through auditions, more than 300 students from conservatories from Europe (and beyond) are selected each year for NJO projects. Coaching and master classes are always followed by the presentation to the public.
The difference with the JeugdOrkest Nederland (JON) is that the members in the JON are in the age category 14-20 and as a rule do not (yet) study at the conservatory (subject to prior education, if any). The NJO also does not put together one orchestra, but musicians can participate in various orchestras and ensembles.
The NJO is funded by contributions from the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the province of Gelderland and the municipality of Apeldoorn. There are also companies that sponsor.
Activities
In the winter there is a tour through a symphony orchestra from the NJO, in the summer around 250 musicians from home and abroad take part in projects organized as part of the summer project: they work on a varied musical repertoire for a month, led by various conductors and coaches. The repertoire ranges from music for large symphony orchestra to chamber orchestra and from contemporary ensemble music to opera projects and crossovers with, for example, dance or jazz.
Since 2001, NJO has been organizing its own festival in Gelderland in the summer, the NJO Muziekzomer. This is the stage for the many ensembles and orchestras that are being prepared during the summer project.
Performances
The NJO symphony orchestra often plays in the series with subscription concerts by the professional symphony orchestras in the most important concert halls in the Netherlands. The NJO also made many tours abroad, to almost all European countries. Notable projects are the scenic performance of the opera Falstaff by Verdi with conductor Dennis Russell Davies in 1994 in Germany. In 1996 the NJO played at the Radio France & Montpellier Festival, with works by Mahler, Debussy, Glass, Maderna and Mozart. In 1997 a concert tour led by conductor Enrico Pace followed to Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden and Denmark, where the NJO accompanied pianist Igor Roma. In 1998 and 1999 there were tours to France, Spain and Portugal. The tour to Germany in 2000 ended with a concert at Lowlands. Also in 2012 and 2013 an orchestra from the NJO played at Lowlands; on 18 August 2013, the NJO Reich Ensemble played Music for 18 Musicians in the presence of composer Steve Reich, composer in residence of the NJO Music Summer that year. The orchestra continued to play in Prague, at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, the Flanders Festival in Bruges, in the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, during the Edinburgh Festival and the Young Euro Classic festival in Berlin in 2012, 2015 and 2016.
The NJO filmed Richard Strauss's Vier letzte Lieder with soprano Roberta Alexander, Charles Ives's Three Places in New England, Igor Stravinski's The Firebird and Petroesjka, and works by Bartók and Rimski-Korsakov. Many concerts were also recorded for radio and television.
Conductors
Many renowned conductors have led the NJO, including Mark Wigglesworth, Jaap van Zweden, Iván Fischer, George Benjamin, Reinbert de Leeuw, Jos Van Immerseel, Philippe Herreweghe, Thierry Fischer, John Adams, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Enrico Pace, Oliver Knussen , Josep Pons and Paul Goodwin. Soloists who have played or sang with the NJO include Anne Evans, Charlotte Margiono, Truls Mørk, Enrico Pace, Peter Donohoe, Boris Belkin, Igor Roma and Raphael Oleg.
NJO Summer Academy
Since 2001, the NJO has been organizing the NJO Summer Academy, an international orchestra and ensemble project. Every year around 250 young people participate in this project under the guidance of renowned soloists and conductors. There is a large symphony orchestra, a project for chamber orchestra and a project for contemporary music. The NJO Orchestra of the 19th century has been a fixture since the establishment of the NJO Summer Academy in 2001. This orchestra plays on authentic instruments. After Jos Van Immerseel, Richard Egarr has been responsible for the authentic performance practice since 2009. In addition, there is a composer in residence every year: György Kurtág (2001), Louis Andriessen (2002), Wolfgang Rihm (2003), Thomas Adès (2004), Mauricio Kagel (2005), Sofia Goebajdoelina (2006), George Benjamin (2007) ), John Adams (2008), Oliver Knussen (2009) and Mark-Anthony Turnage (2010). In 2011 it is the turn of the Finnish Kaija Saariaho. Until 2010, Reinbert de Leeuw was the artistic director of the NJO Summer Academy. From 2011 the Chinese-American conductor Xian Zhang will take over this role from him.
Prizes and awards
The performance of Des Canyons aux Étoiles in Edinburgh under the direction of Reinbert de Leeuw was rewarded with the Angel by music critics of The Herald. The recording of Boog by the Dutch composer Robert Heppener for Donemus was nominated for an Edison.
Literature
In 1998 a book was published on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the NJO, entitled The best orchestra in the Netherlands. This book describes the history of the orchestra and contains a complete list of all concerts from 1957.