Strings Exchange
A supporting pillar for the youth work at the Festspielhaus St Pölten is the cooperation with the Cape Festival in Cape Town, South Africa. We bridge continents: young musicians from Lower Austria cooperate with young musicians from South Africa. The cooperation between the Cape Festival and the Festspielhaus comprises two working phases. In January 2010, young people from Lower Austria and South Africa will meet at the Township Hout Bay, a suburb of Cape Town, to make music together.
The musical director is Etienne Abelin, artist in residence at the Festspielhaus in 2009/2010 season, himself moving between different musical worlds and instruments. He plays the baroque violin, violin and electric violin, is member of Claudio Abbado’s Lucerne Festival Orchestra and leader of the second violins in the Orchestra Mozart Bologna, also directed by Claudio Abbado.
"El Sistema", which made the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra into one of the most sought-after of the world and its artistic director Gustavo Dudamel world-famous, was the inspiration for this ambitious project. Apart from regular training hours, all musicians train one another. Older musicians practice with younger ones, talented musicians rehearse with the less gifted. The goal is to make music together. Our exchange also focuses on learning from each other: while the Hout Bay Strings are supported by Lower Austrian young people in working out two works by Benjamin Britten, they in exchange get insights into life in townships and learn from the extraordinary musicality of their South African hosts in dance and percussion workshops and the integration of South African pieces for string orchestra.
In cooperation with the music school management of Lower Austria, Etienne Abelin chose four violinists, two viola players and two cellists aged between 16 and 20. In the course of various projects their experiences will be made accessible to a broad public. On April 29, 2010, the documentary film of the "Strings Exchange" project was presented at the Festspielhaus. The young musicians were present at the film premiere and provided samples of their musical experiences.
In October 2011, the young South African violinists of the Hout Bay Music Project will meet the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Lower Austria. In the course of the Youth Club/300, there will therefore be continent-crossing rehearsals and music-making on the main stage.
Gallery "Presentation Strings Exchange" on Thu 29 April 2010 at Café Publik
This season, too, in a master class Etienne Abelin, musical director of this exceptional exchange project, will bundle the young musical enthusiasm into a moving concert:
Cape Town Exchange Presents / Fri 29 October 2010, 10 h, Box
Cape Town Exchange & Tamar Halperin / Sun 31 October 2010, 19:30 h, Box
Lower Austria Youth Symphony Orchestra meets Hout Bay Strings / Mon 31 October 2011, 19:30 h, Main Hall
Cinema Breakfast on Sun 18 December 2011 12 h,
Cinema Paradiso St. Pölten. "El Sistema" (VE 2008, Paul Smaczny)
Cape Festival / Daily Report: Day 1 / Day 2 / Day 3 / Day 4 / Day 7
