An orchestra of a special kind is celebrating its 50th birthday: the Frankfurt-based Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. What is special about it is that the ensemble has managed itself since its foundation, and only students play. “It works really well,” says the new managing director Maximilian von Aulock, who has been in office since July 1. The approximately 260 members are invited to a meeting several times a year, and there is a board of directors and a program committee, among other things.
Z+ (subscription required content); Arnold Schönberg: Composing against the zeitgeist-sick
Z+ (subscription required); AfD: Majority of East German companies see AfD as a risk
Z+ (subscription required content); Brass music: Tröööööööt!
The prerequisite for membership: studying at a German-speaking music college in Germany, Austria or Switzerland and being between 18 and 28 years old. Candidates are invited to audition in Frankfurt several times a year. The orchestra is extremely international, with current members coming from over 30 nations. On average, they play in the student orchestra for two to four years.
“When the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie was founded in 1974, the desire for cultural liberalization, social change in values and democratic education was omnipresent,” reports spokeswoman Judith Zimmermann. The musicians “dreamed of a supra-regional orchestra in which their voices count for something.” The young orchestra is financially supported by the federal government, the state and the city. “That is far from enough,” explains Aulock. It receives money from other supporters such as private and public foundations.
The Junge Deutsche Philharmonie curates an autumn and spring tour every year. For a few years now, the orchestra has also been organizing its own small festival in Frankfurt called “Freispiel”. This year it will take place from August 29 to September 1. At the end of the festival, a work commissioned for the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie will be premiered in Frankfurt’s Paulskirche: The composer Diana Syrse has incorporated statements from the first German National Assembly in 1848.
The subsequent anniversary autumn tour will include Mahler’s 7th Symphony. The official celebratory concert will take place on September 14th in Wiesbaden. This will be followed by a final tour with Jonathan Nott, who accompanied the ensemble as “first conductor” and artistic advisor for ten years. His successor has not yet been decided.
“As a self-organized, grassroots democratic orchestra, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie has made history and continues to shape the orchestral landscape to this day,” says Zimmermann. Groups such as the Ensemble Modern, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie have emerged from it.
An orchestra of a special kind is celebrating its 50th birthday: the Frankfurt-based Junge Deutsche Philharmonie. What is special is that the ensemble has managed itself since its foundation, and only students play. “It works really well,” says the new managing director Maximilian von Aulock, who has been in office since July 1. The approximately 260 members are invited to a meeting several times a year, and there is a board of directors and a program committee, among other things.
The prerequisite for membership: studying at a German-speaking music college in Germany, Austria or Switzerland and being between 18 and 28 years old. Candidates are invited to audition in Frankfurt several times a year. The orchestra is extremely international, with current members coming from over 30 nations. On average, they play in the student orchestra for two to four years.
