Orchestrating the talents of Europe’s youth

Date: 18/04/1996

THE EU Youth Orchestra last week became the first symphony orchestra to play in Asunción since Leonard Bernstein brought the New York Philharmonic to the Paraguayan capital

30 years earlier.

The performance was part of a four-nation goodwill tour, including Brazil, Argentina and Uruguay, to mark the cooperation agreement signed last December between the EU and the countries of the Mercosur bloc.

Joy Bryer, the orchestra's founder and the driving force behind its success, believes the tour marks a new stage in its development. “This was particularly rewarding following the Mercosur agreement. I see the orchestra as the Union's cultural ambassador and I hope that after last year's agreement between the EU and the United States, it will follow on with a tour of America,” she says.

“I would like to see a pattern develop whereby the orchestra will follow important agreements.”

Bryer's work with young people has occupied much of her life and, in the early 1970s, she was actively involved with the International Youth Orchestra and Performing Arts Festival. The initiative, she explains, was designed to bring together “young orchestras, dancers, singers, opera companies and choirs to live and work together, creating tolerance, international understanding and goodwill”.

Shortly after the UK joined the then European Economic Community in 1973, Bryer focused her attention on creating a purely European orchestra.

“I felt very strongly that Europe would mean nothing to young people and they would not be able to grasp what we were trying to do. So my husband and I dreamt up the European Union Youth Symphony Orchestra (EUYO), with the same basic principle of bringing young people together from diverse backgrounds and economic circumstances to create a great symphony orchestra,” she explains.

Bryer firmly points out that the venture is not just about music, but is about young people and creating citizens of Europe for the future - whether they go on to become professional musicians or not.

“I call the orchestra the Union's human face. I do feel at times the EU does not have a soul. I believe it is only through projects like ours that we can create the soul young people need,” she says.

Although the Union has grown in size over the past two decades, the orchestra has kept within its original limit of 140 musicians between the ages of 14 and 23. Competition for places is fierce and is based purely on merit, rather than on national quotas or string pulling.

At least 4,000 young people apply to join every year. Their numbers are whittled down in a series of national competitions and the final 1,000 are then auditioned personally by two of the orchestra's musical directors.

Bryer and the orchestra's founding music director, Claudio Abbado, decided at the outset that they would not go down the path of guaranteeing a set number of places to each EU country. As a result, the strongest contingents of musicians in the early days came from the UK, Germany and the Netherlands.

But the under-representation of other EU nationalities spurred their authorities on. The EUYO's example led to the creation of youth orchestras in France, Italy and Greece. Bryer, who has successfully persuaded all member states to support the orchestra, is convinced their involvement forces them “to help young people, whether in music or more broadly in the arts in their own country”.

The orchestra, which receives an annual 500,000-ecu grant from the European Parliament and has won sponsorship from major firms such as AT&T, also has an economic spin-off which benefits not only its members, but other youngsters as well.

“Through the work of the orchestra, I hope to get better conditions for young musicians and see them treated as one would treat a lawyer or a doctor. So there are many ramifications to our work,” says Bryer. “The orchestra has also been responsible for preserving and encouraging the future of Europe's musical heritage.”

The orchestra has enabled young people to play with some of the world's greatest musicians. Daniel Barenboim, Herbert von Karajan and Sir Georg Solti are just some of those who have proffered their services. The conductor on the Mercosur trip was Vladimir Ashkenazy.

“Why do we get the greatest conductors?” Bryer believes the answer is simple. “It is because they want to leave something for posterity,” she explains.

The orchestra's membership has uncannily mirrored changes in society at large. “When it started there were only ten women, five vegetarians and absolutely no one gave a damn about the environment. Now over half are women, 40&percent; are vegetarians and every young person wants the orchestra to do something about the environment and the future of the world,” Bryer explains.

But her full-time commitment to the EUYO has not prevented Bryer from throwing her enthusiasm and skills into other ventures. This year, with the help of MEPs, she launched the first European Union Opera for Young Singers (EUOYS).

“You will find in Europe today that almost all or most of our best singers are American. I feel that it is very timely that the EU concentrates on training its own young singers,” she says.

In the same way that former Beatle Paul Macartney has created a centre in Liverpool to train young people in all aspects of the popular music business, so Bryer envisages the EUOYS doing the same for the opera world. “We will find the most talented young singers, bring them together for six weeks and produce two operas, each with two different casts. There will also be extensive classes on site for young electricians, wig-makers and on every aspect of opera so that they can then go out and find jobs in opera houses. I see it as a shop window for the finest young singers in Europe,” she says.

Now that the concept is up and running, Bryer is busy looking for a home for her new project to match the arrangements she has recently made for the orchestra. Under a three-year residency contract, EUYO will practise each spring in the southern Dutch city of Kerkrade.

To some it might appear there is a paradox at the heart of the orchestra and the moves to help young European musicians: Bryer is American.

A youthful 66-year-old Bostonian who passionately believes in the future and worth of the EU, she does not see it that way. “I find being American very helpful. It means I am absolutely neutral. I look at all of these countries completely honestly and openly. I have no favourites. I only want them to come closer together,” she explains.

A former public relations consultant whose clients included American film star Bob Hope, she has no regrets at exchanging the glamorous world of Hollywood for the demanding challenges of helping Europe's young musicians.

Looking back at her early career, she confides: “I really cannot understand why I ever did it. I feel now that when the earth covers me up, I will have left something behind. Bob could always have found someone else. This is my whole life. I have a wonderful family, but this has been my consuming passion since I started it.”