After the summer auditions held in Salzburg, we are happy to welcome six new members to Theresia Orchestra.
Summer is a very busy time for us: not only do we have two important residencies coming up in Geneva and Innsbruck. We have also just returned from auditions as usually in Salzburg, and are looking forward to welcoming the new members chosen to join our beloved Theresia Orchestra.
As always, these have been intense days for both the participants and the members of the jury: we try to get to know our candidates in depth, to assess their individual musical abilities, their ability to work in a group and their motivation to pursuing a career path towards becoming independent professional musicians. We strongly believe in the importance of this moment, which cannot be simply assessed by a solo performance of a few minutes: we want to give all candidates a meaningful training opportunity, so that even those who are not selected can go home with a valuable experience. And for this to be a positive experience, the location also matters which is why our auditions are held at the Schloss Frohburg in collaboration with the Mozarteum in Salzburg.
Let’s take a closer look at this year’s figures: there were 52 candidates from 18 different countries. Auditions took place from 13 to 15 July and they were focused on trumpets, timpani, oboes, horns, bassoons, and string instruments. The Examining Committee consisted of Alfredo Bernardini – Principal Conductor, Gemma Longoni – Concertmaster, Mario Martinoli – Artistic Director, and Elena Gaboardi – Trustee of Fondazione ICONS.
We are pleased to announce that the following players will join Theresia for its upcoming orchestral and chamber music projects as new members: Paula Pinn, bassoon (Germany); Marta Jiménez Ramírez, cello (Spain); Helena Reguera Rivero, viola (Spain); Begoña Hernández Gallardo, violin (Spain); Janire de PazRivas, horn (Spain); Maria Plucińska, oboe (Poland).
The auditions also serve to complete the talent pool of musicians on our reserve list, who might be called upon for individual projects and are invited to participate in the EMPOWER capacity building workshops.
A warm welcome to all of you: we look forward to seeing you join the ranks of our orchestra!
The magic of summer? The chance to travel and gain new experiences. How about adding a new orchestral experience to your CV? Theresia invites young musicians to join the orchestra and audition. Find out more about the next auditions taking place this summer!
The magic of summer? The chance to travel and gain new experiences. How about adding a new orchestral experience to your CV? Theresia invites young musicians to join the orchestra and audition. Find out more about the next auditions taking place this summer!
Summer is a magical time: it is the time of year to travel, to see new places, to gain new experiences. It is also a time to recharge batteries! For us at Theresia, summer also means auditions as we look for new musicians to join the orchestra. For some years now, we have met many fantastic young period instrument players during the summer who all have one thing in common: they want to add value to their CV with a new orchestral experience that crosses borders. Why? Maybe they heard about it from colleagues, teachers or listened to some of our concerts online. Most of all, they realised that at Theresia you can do something that is not so common: play classical repertoire on period instruments.
Theresia’s auditions in Salzburg
Here some more details:
Theresia’s next auditions take place from 13 to 15 July and we’re looking for trumpets, timpani, oboes, horns, bassoons, and string instruments. The application deadline is Thursday8 June. Just like last year, auditions are organised in partnership with the Mozarteum University and will take place in Salzburg, in Austria at the beautiful Schloss Frohnburg.
Who can audition?
Any emerging period instrumentalist can join Theresia. However, there are some mandatory requirements you should know about. You need to be under 28 – born either on or after 1 January 1995 – and all candidates should be being citizens of the European Union or of the European Economic Area. Non-EU citizens may apply if they hold a residence permit for study in one of the EU countries. Candidates must have in-depth knowledge of performance practice on authentic instruments and must use period instruments or copies of them. During auditions, the use of the classical bow for strings and classical instruments for winds is mandatory.
What’s on offer?
Candidates who will be selected are offered a grant of €3000, allowing them to participate in up to five projects or so called residencies, in the period from August 2023 to November 2024. Musicians are specifically invited to participate in the learning and artistic activities of Theresia Orchestra such as the orchestral residencies, chamber music academies, and specialised workshops to improve skills and gain more experience in the performance of symphonic and chamber music repertoire of the Classical Era on period instruments. This includes the participation in the concerts and recording activities which are scheduled at the end of each orchestral residency or chamber music academy, as well as the active participation in Theresia Academy’s educational activities such as the capacity building sessions, development of soft-skills, co-creation workshops, musicological seminars.
Not only “The Sound of Music” was an iconic musical shot in Salzburg, but it also happened to be shot at our auditions’ venue, Schloss Fohnburg – and the rich coincidence can have a meaningful relevance for our candidates.
Not only “The Sound of Music” was an iconic musical shot in Salzburg, but it also happened to be shot at our auditions’ venue, Schloss Frohnburg – and the rich coincidence can have a meaningful relevance for our candidates.
Have you ever heard of a Schloss Frohnburg? This German name sounds like fairy tale places and old times splendour, and actually, it is a very special place where two very different things somehow meet: the renowned Salzburg’s Mozarteum and the American 1965 musical movie “The Sound of Music”.
What is Schloss Frohnburg’s story?
Originally, Schloss Frohnburg was built between 1660 and 1680 by Prince-Archbishop Max Gandolf as a summer manor and called “Schloss Grafenau”. Through marriage, the castle went to the family of the Counts of Frohnberg who gave the new name to the building. Later it became the property of the Counts of Kuenberg. Schloss Frohnburg went through its prime around 1700, when its extensive parks and gardens were maintained by 13 gardeners! The castle had orangeries and orchards and the site now used as a library was originally a bathhouse, these days only a marble plaque saying “Limpida perluor unda” (bathing in the clear wave) commemorates this fact.
For those familiar with Salzburg’s topography, it is situated along Hellbrunner Allee, which connects the Residenz Palace (probably the most important historic building of Salzburg) and the old town of Salzburg with Hellbrunn Castle in the South over a distance of about 5 kilometres. Prince-Archbishop Markus Sittikus ordered the construction of the straight alley to get comfortably to the castle and gardens built by Santino Solari in 1613.
How Schloss Frohnburg turned into becoming a house for music
After the Second World War, the American occupiers confiscated the building. In 1960, the Republic of Austria acquired Schloss Frohnburg to allocate it to the Carl Orff Institute as part of the Mozarteum. Nowadays, the historic concert hall and the adjoining rooms are used by the Mozarteum University for performances and can also be rented, making it an ideal location for concerts, seminars and much more, thanks to its concert hall and the adjoining conference hall. And right here are scheduled Theresia’s 2022 auditions, to be held in a few days (on 14th July and 15th July).
A location for “The Sound of Music”
Salzburg is so full of gems, that Schloss Frohnburg is not at the top of the list of the standard tourist. Thousands of people, though, worship it in the movie “The Sound of Music”, in which it was used for the exterior shots of the Trapp villa. Do you remember the story? In 1938 Maria (a charming Julie Andrews), a young nun to be, uncertain whether to take vows or not, is sent to Captain von Trapp’s home to be the governess to his seven children. She falls in love with the children and their widowed father who, ordered to accept a commission in the German navy, opposes the Nazis so that he and Maria decide to flee from Austria with the children. Music is at the very core of the movie, as it is the force that unites the Captain, Maria and the seven children. What people usually do not know is that this is a true story: the Trapp family really flew to the United States before the II World War, making a name for themselves as the Trapp Family Singers.
The first appearance of the castle is particularly evocative for us because it happens to be when Maria leaves the convent to face her new task. She’s afraid and apprehensive: will she be up to the job? Will she make a good impression? That’s exactly what a young musician facing an audition may think. Well, first of all, we can assure you reminding the words of hour horn player Jonathan van der Beek, who joined Theresia after last year’s auditions: “It is called an audition because they are making a selection in the end, but it felt more like a workshop or even a masterclass in a beautiful environment. We got to prepare certain pieces, and we had to ‘rehearse’ in front of a jury the whole day. This made me very comfortable as I wasn’t judged only on the 5 first minutes of playing. When I went out of the audition, I was just so grateful that I got the opportunity to work with Alfredo Bernardini and all the great musicians that participated.”
Then we could all get inspired by Maria, singing “I have confidence” on her way to Trapp Villa – Schloss Frohnburg: “With each step I am more certain / Everything will turn out fine / I have confidence / The world can all be mine!”.
Good luck with your auditions and… have confidence!
Vienna, Salzburg, Mannheim: Theresia’s musical journey at Trame Sonore
By Emilia Campagna - May 23, 2019
We are about to embark on an enlightening musical journey. It will bring us and our audience through the three main towns when it comes to Classicism: Vienna, Salzburg and Mannheim
We are about to embark on an enlightening musical journey: it will bring us and our audience through the three main towns when it comes to Classicism: Vienna, Salzburg and Mannheim. And yet, nobody will have to leave at all the beautiful centre of Mantua, where we will be hosts of “Trame Sonore – Mantova Chamber Music Festival”.
Music is constantly appreciated as the most powerful way for time-travelling: this is even truer for orchestras that, like Theresia, perform on period instruments, deepening the historical performance practice.
So, this time we are headed for the very roots of Classical style, in search of the origins of Symphony and Sonata form.
Mannheim is considered to be a true school of classical style, thank both to the orchestral techniques pioneered by the court orchestra of Mannheim in the latter half of the 18th century and to the group of composers of the early classical period, who composed for the orchestra itself. The orchestra had an excellent reputation, due to its excellent discipline and the individual skill of its players; the English traveller Charles Burney called it “an army of generals”. The father of the school is considered to be the Bohemian composer Johann Stamitz, whose Symphony in F major n. 6 will be performed together with F. X. Richter‘s Symphony in G major VB 19 (concert on 1st June at 4.30 pm at Palazzo Ducale, Galleria dei Fiumi).
Since it was an imperial capital, Vienna was one of the main centres of musical life in Europe: the Viennese Classical school is nowadays best associated with the names of Mozart and Haydn, but the very transition from Baroque to Classical style was due to composers like Georg Matthias Monn. Monn, who was born in Vienna in 1717 and died in the same city in 1750, represents a school of Austrian composers who had thoroughly studied the principles of counterpoint as practised by Johann Sebastian Bach, but also effected a change from the formalistic and ornate Baroque style to the simpler, more graceful Galante music. Moreover, they renewed the sonata form by expanding the concepts of secondary theme and development. Even Czech-born composers Johann Baptist Wanhal and Josef Mysliveček (both born in the 1730s) are important representatives of the new style. Furthermore, many of Wanhal’s symphonies are in minor keys and are considered highly influential to the “Sturm und Drang” movement of his time. And, is renowned the influence that Josef Mysliveček had on the young Mozart. Monn, Vanhal and Myslivecek will be performed in our “Vienna” concert on 2nd June at 9 a.m. (Palazzo Te) and 10.30 p.m. (Palazzo Ducale).
Last but not least, Salzburg was obviously the town where Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was born and where he started his career as a court composer to the Archbishop Hieronymus Colloredo: in 1772, when he was sixteen he wrote three Divertimenti after the second of three extended trips to Italy. A final trip to Italy was already in the planning and the Italian influence on Mozart’s writing is strong. The three-movement structure follows the pattern of the Italian Sinfonia, while the writing also nods in the direction of the widely respected Joseph Haydn and Johann Christian Bach – whom Mozart had met in London and whom he regarded as both friend and mentor. String Divertimentos n. 1 in D major and n. 3 in F major will be performed on 30th May at 9 a.m. and 10.30 a.m. (Teatro Bibiena) and on 31th May ah 10.30 a.m. (Galleria dei Fiumi di Palazzo Ducale).
Theresia’s strings will be conducted by Claudio Astronio with Gemma Longoni as violin concertmaster.
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