A look in the recent past
The Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra has had its headquarters in Valencia, Spain since 2005, when maestro Josep Vicent became its Artistic Director and Principal Conductor. It is composed of 100 musicians from 40 countries and it has toured in China, The Netherlands, Spain, Austria, Cyprus and Germany. In Summer 2008 it travelled to Canada where maestro Franz Paul Decker conducted.
The World Orchestra started this new period in Valencia showing its artistic project to China to mark the 60th anniversary of the signing of peace between China and Japan. The Netherlands and Austria were next. The orchestra came back in the Winter of 2007 to the Kurhaus (Scheveningen), the place where The World Orchestra was born. It has played in Cyprus and Germany (its previous administrative home) in the Winter of 2007 to perform in the Berlin Philharmonie.
The World Orchestra has made performances in Spain. Apart from symphonic concerts in numerous concert halls as El Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía in Valencia, Palau de la Música of Valencia, Teatro Monumental of Madrid or GREC Festival of Barcelona, the orchestra ran a Chamber Music festival, with concerts for String Quartet, Brass ensemble and Percussion Group. JMWO was also the resident orchestra of Nits de la Mediterrània Music festival and also was in charge of the music of the Opera ‘Puss in Boots’ (a co-production with Teatro Real of Madrid and Teatre Liceu of Barcelona). Some of JMWO musicians took part in the filming of new movie on Valencian composer Martin y Soler. One concert was for the finals of the 32nd America's Cup Competition. The World Orchestra joined forces with Orquesta de Valencia with almost 150 musicians on stage.
Its concerts have been broadcast live in numerous TV programs and Radio stations and have been recorded for RTVE, RTVV, RNE, and the EBO. During its tour in China the Valencian TV-RTVV made a documentary film called Sound for Peace.
History
The World Orchestra came into being with the creation of a young orchestra for the Jeunesses Musicales International project. In the period 1949 to 1969, in the Netherlands, the violinist Arthur Grumiaux, Director of the Igor Markevitch Orchestra and other key musicians resolved, as part of the Jeunesses Musicales assemblies, to put together an international orchestra inspired in the vision of Sir Robert Mayer, creator of the orchestral concerts for children in the 1920s.
It was in Canada in 1968 that Gilles Lefebvre proposed the transformation of this ‘orchestral conference’ into an ensemble that would develop under the wand of an experienced conductor. Lefebvre envisaged that such an ensemble would receive and continue the education of the best young musicians of the Jeunesses Musicales member countries. Right from its inception, this project in music education was noted for its rigour and professional quality. These standards have persisted to the present day and it has attained world recognition. Success has come quickly due to the high artistic quality; furthermore, the World Orchestra has become a symbol, through excellence in music, of solidarity and co-operation between the nations of the world.
In 1986, the orchestra established its headquarters in Berlin and offered concerts in the name of peace on both sides of the infamous wall that divided the city. Since then, the World Orchestra has been registered as a harmonious association of musicians without frontiers. As recognition of its peace-building efforts, in 1996 the UNESCO granted it the distinction of ‘Artist for Peace’ with which it has travelled the world over.
During the 1960s and 1970s, WOJM went on several tours to Canada, Denmark, Belgium, Italy, the U.K., Japan, the U.S. and Switzerland under such outstanding masters as Zubin Mehta, Leonard Bernstein, Michael Tilson Thomas and Serge Baudo.
In the 1980s, Walter Weller, Hiroyuki Iwaki, Eduardo Mata, Jeffrey Tate, Vernon Handley, Charles Dutoit and Michel Tabachnik among many others directed the orchestra. That period saw the orchestra travelling to Germany, Hungary, France, Spain, the U.S., Canada, Japan, South Korea, Poland, Austria, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Uruguay and Argentina.
In the 1990s, the World Orchestra was to be seen in Germany, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Russia, Estonia, Sweden, Latvia, Finland, Norway, The Netherlands, Poland, Spain, France, the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea, Switzerland, and Israel. In those years the baton was held by Kurt Masur, Franz-Paul Decker, Antonio Pappano, En Shao, Yuri Temirkanov and Kent Nagano and well known soloists as Bobby McFerrin or Yehudi Menuhin joined the orchestra. With the status of Artist for Peace, the World Orchestra performed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of State of Israel (1998), the 350th anniversary of the Peace of Westphalia (1998), and in the commemorative events marking the beginning of the Second World War in Warsaw (1999). In the year 2000, it toured south-eastern Europe (Slovenia, Croatia, former Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia).
Valencian or Valencian language is the official, historical and traditional name used in the Valencian Community (Spain), and unofficially in the El Carche comarca in Murcia (Spain), to refer to the Romance language also known as Catalan. The Valencian Community's 1982 Statute of Autonomy and the Spanish Constitution officially recognise Valencian as the regional language.
The Montreal Symphony Orchestra is a Canadian symphony orchestra based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The orchestra’s home is the Montreal Symphony House at Place des Arts. It is the only orchestra in the world that possesses an octobass.
Republican Left of the Valencian Country is a Valencian left nationalist and republican party.
Llíria is a medium-sized town off the CV35 motorway to the north of Valencia, Spain. Known as Edeta in ancient Iberian times, it is the musical capital of the region. On October 30, 2019, Llíria was declared a Creative City in the category of Music by the UNESCO.
Igor Borisovich Markevitch was an avant-garde Russian Emprie born composer and conductor who studied and worked in Paris and became a naturalized Italian and French citizen in 1947 and 1982 respectively. He was commissioned in 1929 for a piano concerto by impresario Serge Diaghilev of the Ballet Russe de Monte Carlo.
Árpád Joó was a Hungarian American conductor and concert pianist.
Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI) is the largest youth music non-governmental organisation in the world, created in Brussels, Belgium in 1945, with the mission to "enable young people to develop through music across all boundaries". JMI has established four priority activity fields: Young Musicians, Young Audiences, Youth Empowerment and Youth Orchestras & Ensembles.
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Radiotelevisió Valenciana was in charge of the broadcasting of television and radio in the Valencian Community in Spain.
Josep Vicent is a Spanish conductor. Principal Conductor - Music Director with ADDA Simfònica of Spain. Artistic and General Director at ADDA Auditorium in the region of Valencia. Conducta regularly Orchestras like Rotterdam Philharmonic, London Symphony, Belgium National Orchestra and many others. He was artistic director at Xenakis Festival and The Amsterdam Percussion Group. He has been also chief conductor and artistic director with Balearic Symphony Orchestra. He is the artistic director and principal conductor at The World Orchestra. Vicent was born in the musical region of Valencia in Spain and studied at the Conservatorio Superior de Música de Alicante and the Sweelinck Conservatorium in Amsterdam.
Valencian Left was a nationalist Valencian leftist political party founded in July 1934, that advocated self-determination of the Valencian Community. The party was suppressed in Francoist Spain and was not revived when democracy returned to Spain in the late 1970s.
Valencian nationalism or Valencianism is a political movement in the Land of Valencia, Spain.
The Valencian Community, or simply Valencia, is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and Madrid with more than five million inhabitants. Its homonymous capital Valencia is the third largest city and metropolitan area in Spain. It is located along the Mediterranean coast on the east side of the Iberian Peninsula. It borders with Catalonia to the north, Aragon and Castilla–La Mancha to the west, and Murcia to the south. The Valencian Community consists of three provinces which are Castellón, Valencia and Alicante.
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Manuel Galduf, is a Spanish Orchestra conductor.
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Manuel Palau Boix was a Spanish composer and teacher in Valencia Conservatory. He wrote a large number of symphonic, band, choral and chamber works. He was one of the most popular and important composers of his time. He received the Spanish National Music Award twice, first in 1927 and again in 1945. His music is known within the Spanish classical music for being a representative of what it has been called “Mediterranean” style, like other Spanish musicians such as Vicente Asencio or Oscar Esplá.
Vicent Andrés Estellés was a Spanish journalist and poet. He is considered one of the main renovators of modern Valencian poetry, with a similar role to that of Ausiàs March or Joan Roís de Corella in earlier periods.
Pau Alabajos i Ferrer is a spanish singer-songwriter and politician. As of 2017 he has seven records under his belt. He is the current Secretary of the musicians and singers association in the Valencian Country Col•lectiu Ovidi Montllor (COM).
