The Orlando Festival is the oldest chamber music festival in the Netherlands and has been an important contributor to the development and promotion of chamber music in the Netherlands since 1982.[1] The festival was founded by Stefan Metz, cellist of Orlando Quartet.
Since its foundation, Orlando has made an important contribution to the development and promotion of chamber music in the Netherlands and abroad. Two events are organized annually: the ten-day Orlando Festival during the summer and the Orlando winter course with four teaching days during the winter/spring.
Characteristic of the Orlando Festival is the combination of chamber music concerts and education for amateur musicians of all levels and all ages, aimed at young professional musicians. Since the first edition in 1982, the heart of the Orlando Festival has been in Abbey Hotel and Conference Rolduc in Kerkrade, where all participants stay, and where the afternoon concerts, lessons, master classes and workshops take place.
The ten Orlando evening concerts, performed by approximately 30 international and renowned chamber musicians, partly take place on other stages in Limburg and the Euregion, such as Parkstad Limburg Theater Kerkrade, Kloosterbibliotheek Wittem and the Sint Janskerk in Maastricht. The Orlando Festival has a national appearance but is also rooted in the region.
The young ensembles and vocalists of the masterclass provide approximately 20 regional concerts in beautiful locations. The special and successful Orlando formula - versatile programming, high performance level, concerts in combination with education - makes the Orlando Festival unique, not only in the Netherlands, but also worldwide.
With approximately 100 events in ten days, the Orlando Festival focuses on audiences from the Euregion and the Netherlands, and festival visitors and active participants from all over the Netherlands and abroad. The radio stations Radio 4, L1 and De Concertzender record almost all Orlando concerts for later broadcast, reaching an estimated 200,000 listeners annually. Orlando also annually produces 1 to 2 compact discs with (live) recordings of interesting parts of the festival program.
History of the Orlando Festival
Poster Orlando 30 years
In 2011, the Orlando Festival celebrated its 30th anniversary, with Stefan Metz saying goodbye as director and artistic director. With the arrival of Maarten Mostert, a new period began for the Orlando Festival. In 2012 a new set-up was carried out, whereby there was no longer a pronounced youth and adult week, but all participants were present at Rolduc simultaneously.
From September 2014 Henk Guittart is the artistic director of the Orlando Festival. On December 1, 2015, he was appointed director / artistic director of the Chamber Music Limburg Foundation, responsible producer of the Orlando Festival.
Orlando musicians
The Orlando Festival welcomes a large group of professional musicians every year. The musicians teach participating ensembles of all levels during the day, from amateurs to young professional ensembles. [2] The musicians also provide the afternoon and evening concerts at the Orlando Festival. Regularly returning ensembles include Rusquartet, Nemtsov Duo and Osiris Trio.
Since 2015, the Gruppo Montebello has been a resident at the Orlando Festival. Gruppo Montebello was the name for ensemble projects conducted by Henk Guittart at the various conservatories where he worked from 1991 to 2011. (The Italian "Montebello" means "beautiful mountain" and in German: Schoenberg.)
Gruppo Montebello at the Orlando Festival 2019 (Photo by Sénen Fernández García)
Since 2011, when this plan started in Canada, the name Gruppo Montebello has been used exclusively for an ensemble with carefully selected professional chamber musicians with whom Guittart realizes his long-term projects: performing and recording the large ensemble compositions of the three composers of the Second Viennese School: Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and Alban Berg for CD. And recordings of the complete chamber music arrangements of orchestral works, which arose during the years of the Verein für musikalische Privataufführungen, founded in Wien and Prague from 1918 to 1924 by Arnold Schoenberg, as well as later arrangements of symphonic repertoire for small, single instrumentations.
Rolduc Abbey
Rolduc Abbey, Kerkrade
The Orlando Festival, as international chamber music festival, has been linked to festival location Rolduc since 1982. [3] This unique venue contributes greatly to the unique Orlando experience. The building breathes 900 years of history, which is immediately perceptible when you enter the impressive courtyard. The collection of buildings, gardens and courtyards has a total acreage of 8,5 hectare, whilst the whole property, including a vineyard, totals 35 hectare.
Rolduc is the largest abbey complex in the Benelux and is on the UNESCO list of 100 most important monuments in our country. [4]
Not far from the abbey there are beautiful nature areas such as the Wormdal or the Anstelvallei with its slope forests, monumental farms, crystal clear stream and panoramic views of the Cranenweyer reservoir via the various hiking and cycling routes.
Orlando European Summer Course for Chamber Music (OESC)
From the summer of 2021 the Orlando Festival hosts the Orlando European Summer Course for Chamber Music (OESC). OESC offers young artists from the countries of the European Union in chamber music ensembles (2 to 9 musicians) an intensive course of about 30 hours of specialised education. OESC takes place during the 10 days of the annual Orlando Festival, with chamber music lessons, master classes and coaching in several essential other skills. Participation includes also the opportunity to perform at regional concerts and at the Orlando concerts.
OESC presents a variety of opportunities to grow and learn in many different aspects of music making. This includes musical subjects such as HIP (historically informed performance) from baroque to 20th century repertoire, and all kinds of useful techniques and skills such as efficiency in rehearsing, knowledge of learning development, communication within the ensemble and dealing with mental and physical stress.
OESC is designed for ensembles consisting of Bachelor and Master students and for young professional chamber music ensembles (from duo to nonet, for all classical instrumentalists and vocalists).
Orlando winter course
During the Orlando winter course, amateur musicians receive inspiring and stimulating lessons in teamwork. [5] They learn how to make music together with others, they work on the important parts of the ensemble playing and on efficiently studying new repertoire.
The course is aimed at amateurs of all ages and all levels, from beginners to advanced. Accompanied by professional chamber music teachers, a composition is rehearsed during four rehearsal mornings, which are performed at a concluding concert.
Related Research Articles
Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small number of performers, with one performer to a part. However, by convention, it usually does not include solo instrument performances.
Kerkrade is a town and a municipality in the southeast of Limburg, the southernmost province of the Netherlands. It forms part of the Parkstad Limburg agglomeration.
Philip Cashian is an English composer. He is the head of composition at the Royal Academy of Music.
Erwin Stein was an Austrian musician and writer, prominent as a pupil and friend of Schoenberg, with whom he studied between 1906 and 1910.
Rolduc is the name of a medieval abbey located on the edge of the town of Kerkrade in the far south-east of the Netherlands. It is today a Roman Catholic seminary with an affiliated conference center. The abbey is a rijksmonument. It features on the official list of 100 top Dutch heritage sites, drawn up in 1990 by what is today the Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed.
The Society for Private Musical Performances was an organization founded in Vienna in the autumn of 1918 by Arnold Schoenberg with the intention of making carefully rehearsed and comprehensible performances of newly composed music available to genuinely interested members of the musical public.
The Ensemble intercontemporain (EIC) is a French music ensemble, based in Paris, that is dedicated to contemporary music. Pierre Boulez founded the EIC in 1976 for this purpose.
A music competition is a public event designed to identify and award outstanding musical ensembles, soloists, composers, conductors, musicologists or compositions. Pop music competitions are music competitions which are held to find pop starlets.
The Philharmonic Wind Orchestra is a Singaporean semi-professional wind orchestra. The orchestra was formed in 2000 with Robert Casteels as Music Director and currently has more than 70 members. It is currently under the artistic leadership of Music Director Leonard Tan.
Jacques-Louis Monod was a French composer, pianist and conductor of 20th century and contemporary music, particularly in the advancement of the music of Charles Ives, Edgard Varèse, Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern and uptown music; and was active primarily in New York City and London during the second half of the twentieth century.
The Singapore Wind Symphony's Percussion Ensemble (SWSPE) is an affiliation of the Singapore Wind Symphony (SWS). The ensemble is based in Singapore and is made up of both professional and amateur musicians.
Southwest Chamber Music is a chamber music ensemble based in Los Angeles County, California. The organization was founded in 1987 by the artistic director Jeff von der Schmidt and the executive director Jan Karlin. One of the most active chamber music ensembles in the United States, the ensemble performs year round, provides educational programs, tours internationally, and has recorded 30 compact discs.
The Henschel Quartet is a German string quartet comprising the Henschel siblings; Christoph and Markus (violinists), Monika (viola) and Mathias Beyer-Karlshøj (cellist), who joined them in 1994. Brother Markus left the quartet in 2010, and was succeeded by Daniel Bell in 2012. In 2016–2018 Catalin Desaga took the place of the second violin. Today the Quartet consists of following members: Christoph Henschel and Teresa La Cour (violinists), Monika Henschel (viola) and Mathias Beyer-Karlshøj (cello).
The Melos Ensemble is a group of musicians who started in 1950 in London to play chamber music in mixed instrumentation of string instruments, wind instruments and others. Benjamin Britten composed the chamber music for his War Requiem for the Melos Ensemble and conducted the group in the first performance in Coventry.
Chamber Domaine is a British chamber music ensemble. The ensemble gave its highly praised South Bank and Wigmore Hall debuts in 1999 and since then has performed at leading festivals and concert series in the United Kingdom, Europe and North America.
Eduard Philip Spanjaard, known professionally as Ed Spanjaard, is a Dutch conductor and pianist.
Anna t'Haron is a pen name of Anna Yevdokimova – a Russian pianist, laureate of the All-Russian and International chamber music and piano-duo competitions. Since 2009 Anna is a grant holder of the "Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds". Also, Anna t'Haron working as an artist, web-designer, and Personator.
Kevin Kwan Loucks is a Korean–American classical pianist, arts entrepreneur, and nonprofit executive. In September 2021, he was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Chamber Music America in New York City. He previously served as Director of Business Development and Strategic Partnerships at the Philharmonic Society of Orange County, a presenting organization in residence at the Segerstrom Center for the Arts in Costa Mesa, CA, and also served as Director of Innovation and Program Development at Music Academy of the West in Montecito, California. He co-founded Chamber Music | OC, an arts organization headquartered in Lake Forest, California, and is a founding member and current pianist of the award-winning piano trio, Trio Céleste.
St. Benedictusberg Abbey, also Mamelis Abbey, is a Benedictine monastery established in 1922 in Mamelis, a hamlet which administratively falls within Vaals, Netherlands. It is a rijksmonument.
This is a discography of audio recordings of Gustav Mahler's Fourth Symphony. The symphony premiered at the Kaim-Saal in Munich on 25 November 1901. The symphony's first recording in 1930 by Hidemaro Konoye and the New Symphony Orchestra of Tokyo is the first electrical recording of any Mahler symphony.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
