The European Union Youth Orchestra is delighted to announce Iván Fischer as the Orchestra’s new Music Director, with immediate effect. Maestro Fischer will continue to serve as Music Director of the Budapest Festival Orchestra, as Honorary Guest Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and as Ehrendirigent of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin. Iván Fischer’s first project with the EUYO takes place in the Orchestra’s home and annual summer residency in Grafenegg during August 2024, followed by a tour to New York as part of Carnegie Hall’s WOW! Festival, and to the Orchestra’s annual concerts in Bolzano as part of the Bolzano Festival Bozen. As Music Director, Maestro Fischer will be involved in the planning of the Orchestra’s auditions, artistic training and performances, working with the EUYO’s Executive and Artistic Director.

In a major development of the current Apprenticeship Scheme that has been in operation between the EUYO and the Budapest Festival Orchestra (BFO) for ten years, Fischer and the two Orchestras have agreed to found a new European Orchestra Academy. The Academy will train future musical leaders in orchestral music, chamber music, and music promotion, focusing also on broadening the range of activities that musicians undertake in our communities, and will hold a series of residencies in all EU countries. The first project involving the Academy will be joint concerts this September of BFO and EUYO players in the 2024 edition of the Bridging Europe Festival in Brussels and Budapest, capitals of the EU’s two 2024 Presidency countries, Belgium and Hungary.

Fischer’s appointment comes at the end of current EUYO Chief Conductor Vasily Petrenko’s highly successful ten-year tenure as the EUYO’s Chief Conductor, during which time he has overseen an increasing development in the Orchestra’s standards and performances. The EUYO thanks Maestro Petrenko profusely for his work with the Orchestra and looks forward to further projects with him, including a welcome return to the Orchestra in summer 2025, to include concerts at the Orchestra’s home in Grafenegg.