EURO-MEDITERRANEAN COOPERATION
Through musical exchange, dialogue, circulation and collaboration, the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée (OJM) has placed Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and partnerships at the heart of its activities. Over the past 40 years, the OJM’s initiatives have brought together musical institutions from all of the countries around the Mediterranean; these structures consist mainly of institutes of higher education, cultural centres and festivals that initially served as annual audition locations for the OJM throughout the region.
Over the years, research centres and foundations have joined this initial network, and have hosted festivals, professional meetings and artist residencies. Thanks to this broad diversity of partners, whose expertise covers different aesthetics and cultural influences (e.g. traditional Mediterranean, jazz, baroque, classical and contemporary music), the OJM is truly a unique adventure involving artists and cultural professionals from across the Mediterranean basin.
PARTNERS
The Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée collaborates and creates projects with numerous partners, networks and institutions, with whom it organises auditions, training sessions and tours and who help enable artist mobility and the sharing of ideas and practices.
NETWORKS
Founded under the aegis of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence in 2014, Medinea includes roughly 30 OJM partners from 21 different countries. This network formalises support for OJM activities around a manifesto that presents the values to which all members adhere; the manifesto also lays out the need for dialogue between musical institutions in the Mediterranean basin so that they can effectively structure the sector and, consequently, develop training opportunities for the benefit of young musicians. Thanks to the Medinea network, the OJM has grown significantly outside of France in recent years, with its members playing and taking on roles within the OJM, and thereby contributing their field experience and their knowledge of the music sector.
The OJM is an associate partner of the EFNYO (European Federation of National Youth Orchestras), a platform for exchange in musical training, performance, public engagement, transnational mobility and intercultural dialogue among the leading national and international youth orchestras in Europe. With some of the network's other members, the OJM organises exchange opportunities for young musicians as part of the members’ training programmes.
Supported by the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, enoa (European Network of Opera Academies) shares common values and commitments with the OJM. Together, they work on issues of professional training, particularly regarding inclusion and diversity, by raising the awareness of, and attempting to dismantle, unconscious biases, as well as by developing processes to open up their activities to broader and more diverse professional profiles, genders and backgrounds.
Réséo (Réseau de Sensibilisation à l’Opéra, or Opera Awareness Network), of which the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence is a member, is renowned for its educational and cultural programmes, and serves as an inspiration for the OJM in designing its own programmes to train young artists in public engagement and outreach.
INSTITUTIONS
ALBANIA
— University of Arts (Tirana)
ALGERIA
— Higher National Institute of Music (Algiers)
— Dima Jazz Festival
BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA
— Sarajevo Music Academy
CYPRUS
— Cyprus Youth Symphony Orchestra
CROATIA
— Academy of Music, University of Zagreb
EGYPT
— Cairo Conservatoire
— Makan - Egyptian Center for Culture and Arts
SPAIN
— Joven orquesta nacional de España
FINLAND
— Sibelius Academy Symphony Orchestra
FRANCE
— Paris Conservatoire
— Institute of Higher Musical Education (Aix-en-Provence)
— Aix-en-Provence Conservatoire
— Marseille Conservatoire
— Avignon Conservatoire
— Nice Conservatoire
GREECE
— Department of Music Science & Art - University of Macedonia
— Music Village
— Athens Conservatoire
ITALY
— Milan Conservatory
— Ente Musicale di Nuoro
LEBANON
— Ghassan Yammine School of Arts
— Lebanese National Higher Conservatory of music
MALTA
— ARC Research and Consultancy
MOROCCO
— National Conservatory of Music and Choreographic Art in Rabat
— Visa for Music
— Hiba Foundation
MONTENEGRO
— Montenegrin Music Center
PALESTINE
— Amwaj Choir
— Edward Said National Conservatory of Music
NETHERLANDS
— National Youth Orchestra of the Netherlands
PORTUGAL
— Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa
— Music School of Lisbon
SLOVENIA
— Slovenian Youth Orchestra
— Academy of Music, University of Ljubljana
TUNISIA
— International Cultural Center of Hammamet
— Center for Arab and Mediterranean Music
— Higher Institute of Music of Tunis
— Higher Institute of Music of Sfax
— Higher Institute of Music of Sousse
TURKEY
— MIAM Center for Advanced Studies in Music
— Turkish National Youth Philharmonic Orchestra
WITH THE SUPPORT OF
The Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée receives extensive institutional support from the Région Sud / Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur, the Département des Bouches-du-Rhône and the Direction Régionale des Affaires Culturelles Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (French Ministry of Culture). Founded by the Région Sud / PACA in 1984, with the support of the French Ministry of Culture, the region has provided ongoing support to the OJM and contributed to its development.
The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, through its network of Instituts Français (especially, those in Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia and Turkey), provides the OJM with essential assistance in the Mediterranean, by helping with administrative processes and by sharing its expertise in terms of local cultural institutions.
The OJM received support from Creative Europe during the European Year of Cultural Heritage between 2018 and 2020, and from Erasmus Plus between 2018 and 2021 (Strategic Partnership) and between 2021 and 2023 (Partnership for Creativity); this support has contributed to a major development in the OJM’s programmes, in particular those involving its Mediterranean partners.
Many donors, via the Cercle Etel Adnan pour la Méditerranée, support or have supported this initiative; they include the Mécénat Musical Société Générale, the Stavros Niarchos Foundation and the Orange Foundation.
