MYO auditions: all you need to know
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The period from January to spring is audition season for the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra. Emilie Delorme (Director of the Académie du Festival d’Aix), Pauline Chaigne (in charge of the MYO) and Quentin Hindley (Assistant Conductor) travel around the Mediterranean area to recruit young musicians for the symphonic orchestra and the intercultural creation ensemble. We succeed to catch them between two planes, to find out what happens behind the scenes at these auditions.
Name: Mediterranean Youth Orchestra
Final headcount: 100 musicians from twenty or so countries in the Mediterranean.
Admission results: April 2016
The MYO’s auditions in 2016 involve:
- Three-and-a-half months of auditions in around fifteen countries in the Mediterranean Basin
- over 400 musicians applying (mainly boys, average age: 20 years old)
- 40,000 km travelled by the jury in 45 planes and 57 taxis
The audition charts
- Most frequently auditioned instruments: clarinets, flutes and trumpets. The top three are all wind instruments!
- Country that welcomed the most candidates: in joint 1st place, Portugal and Italy with 100 candidates auditioned over 2 days.
Drawing strength from their diversity, the MYO auditions are often a chance to find the talents of the future among the enthusiastic candidates, who will go on to feature in the Académie du Festival d’Aix’s productions.
In a single day, you can listen to orchestral excerpts* and a jazz hit revisited, or a traditional tune from a Greek village… For all this musical diversity comes to the MYO in July!
Pauline Chaigne
In line with the policy of openness towards Mediterranean Basin countries, followed by the Festival since 2008, the MYO auditions also contribute to increasing the vitality and circulation of music within the Mediterranean, particularly thanks to the enduring bonds they help to form with many local educational partners. This all results in the creation of a unique temporary orchestra and ensemble, to be discovered this summer at the Festival d’Aix!
See the MYO in concert on 18 and 20 July
Intercultural creation concert
*Passages from an orchestral score for a given instrument, used in particular in recruitment competitions
With the support of
Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne & Mécénat Musical Société Générale
