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Composition competition for "European Symphony" underway

Composition competition for "European Symphony" underway
A "European Symphony" is to unite musicians from twelve countries in a virtual orchestra. The composition competition is now underway. (Symbolic image) / Photo: Robert Michael/dpa-Zentralbild/dpa
From: DieSachsen News
Twelve countries and one orchestra": the "European Symphony" project aims to bring together what belongs together. The string players are based in Dresden, the flautists in Milan. The composition competition is now underway.

Europe is to have its own symphony and is looking for the right notes. The composition competition has been running since the beginning of May and composers from European Union countries as well as neighboring countries such as Albania, Iceland and Ukraine have until the end of July to submit their works, as announced by the Dresden Symphony Orchestra as the leading ensemble for the project.

New form of musical togetherness

"With the European Symphony, the audience will experience a new form of togetherness beyond the classical concert hall on June 18, 2027. In a globally unique project, twelve symphony orchestras and choirs from all over Europe will be connected to form a real-time networked orchestra," the organizers announced. This is a strong symbol for Europe and at the same time a departure into an era of new artistic formats.

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Ensembles will be connected in real time via LED screen

The composition competition is looking for works that deal artistically with the special conditions of a distributed real-time performance, according to the organizers. This is because the participating ensembles are connected to each other via a digital network. A large string orchestra will play in the concert hall in real life, while all other vocal groups will be virtually present on large LED screens.

The competition involves two categories: two works for a large symphony orchestra and one work for a symphony orchestra with choir. They will each be awarded 14,000 euros. The compositions should be 15 to 20 minutes long. The premiere will take place on June 18 at the Dresden Messe.

"I am looking forward to the submissions from all over Europe and am very excited to see what ideas the composers come up with to creatively deal with the network-related delays. We will be able to greatly reduce the latencies, but physics, especially the speed of light, also sets limits," emphasized Symphony Orchestra Director Markus Rindt. The "European Symphony" project is intended to help musicians and composers find new ways of working together in Europe in the future.

Trombones from Estonia, percussion from Belgium

The instrumental groups were made up of renowned orchestras: the Dresden Symphony Orchestra provided the strings. The Estonian National Symphony Orchestra provides tuba and trombones. The flutes are in the Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano in Italy, the trumpets in the No Borders Orchestra from Serbia and the clarinets in the Athens State Orchestra from Greece. The Brussels Philharmonic (Belgium) will provide the percussion, while the Mozarteum Salzburg and the Czech Philharmonic will contribute choirs.

The Orquesta Sinfónica de Madrid (bassoons), the Pannon Philharmonic (Hungary/horns), the Sinfonia Varsovia (Poland/oboes) and the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (piano/celesta and harp) will also take part in the cross-border project - despite being up to 2,200 kilometers apart. This is made possible by a specially developed transmission technology.

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