The musicians of the European Union Youth Orchestra return to the Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine on 31 March at 20.45 for a concert in support of the GO! 2025 Nova Gorica • Gorizia European capital of culture.
Passionate, energetic, invigorating: the European Union Youth Orchestra is rightfully applauded as one of the world's pre-eminent symphony orchestras by critics and audiences alike, being defined as "among the élite institutions of its kind" by the New York Times and “the musical façade of Europe in the world” by La Repubblica.
The EUYO is happy to return to the Teatro Nuovo Giovanni da Udine on 31 March at 20.45 with 95 musicians from all over the EU, after its successful last concert in Udine in 2019. World-famous maestro Iván Fischer and violinist Kreeta-Julia Heikkilä will join the Orchestra in a unique programme of three concertos. The evening will begin with the captivating Cantus arcticus, Concerto for Birds and Orchestra, by Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, in which the Orchestra accompanies an enchanting recording of birdsong. The programme continues with the Violin Concerto in D minor of Jean Sibelius, a virtuoso piece with solo violinist Kreeta-Julia Heikkilä, and ends with Béla Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra, where each instrument section is treated as a solo part, and the Orchestra joins together in one of the greatest and most triumphant orchestral finales.
This EUYO concert forms part of the events supporting GO! 2025 Nova Gorica · Gorizia as European Capital of Culture 2025. The Orchestra is delighted to support this initiative as a cultural ambassador for the European Union, as it plays a key role in promoting peace in Europe, and in exemplifying the EU principle of Unity in Diversity, showing that the best hope for harmony in Europe is through combining youth, culture and co-operation. Those are the same European values that the two cities of Nova Gorica and Gorizia have placed at the heart of their ambition to become the most Borderless European Capital of Culture in their role as European Capital of Culture in 2025.