QUEENSLAND'S GERMAN CONNECTIONS - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

The incredible buzz at interval from audience members as you could see the massive impression that the quality of the orchestra with piano soloist Jayson Gilham had made on the audience in Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor); the surprise they had when reflecting on the quality of music they had just heard and relating it to term “youth orchestra”. The incredible goodwill that exists between organisations that understand and value the rich artform of orchestral music and the many benefits it provides for young musicians, international relations and the wider community. Under the inspired direction of founding conductor John Curro am mbe, the Queensland Youth Symphony established itself as a world-class youth orchestra in the 1970s when it attended the International Festival of Youth Orchestras in Lausanne (1972) and Aberdeen (1976 and 1980). In 1980 it had the honour of being selected as the host orchestra, in recognition of its quality and international reputation. QYO’s association with Germany had developed particularly strongly over the past decade, but originated 33 years earlier in 1979 when QYO hosted a visit to Brisbane by the 70-member Hamelin Youth Orchestra ( Neues Hamelner Orchester , now the Wendland Sinfonie Orchester ) from Niedersachsen. The orchestra attended the QYS’s 28 July concert in Brisbane and then gave its own concerts at the Queensland Conservatorium and three Brisbane schools, before performing in Roma, Injune, Charleville, Quilpie and Cunnamulla. These regional concerts were organised by the Queensland Education Department and were the first time that a full symphony orchestra had visited these towns. They played to over 4,000 people in Queensland over two weeks before heading to Sydney for further concerts and then back to Germany. The Hamelin orchestra reciprocated when QYS gave its first ever concert in Germany in Hameln in 1980. The QYS members were overwhelmed by the hospitality of their host families and the local community and then performed further concerts in Hamburg, Osnabruck and Mainz. Between 1980 and 2000, much of Queensland’s international focus was on Asia and QYS tours linked in with this strategy.

Bringing a stunned and delighted audience to its feet “roaring for more” is not a rare experience for young Queensland musicians, and a warm summer night in Bamberg was the setting for a tour climax which will be long remembered, especially by Geoff Rosbrook. Reflecting on the Queensland Youth Symphony’s (QYS) concert in Bamberg on 11 July 2012, this event encapsulated many of the best aspects of QYO’s association with Germany as it has developed and grown over more than 30 years. Three nights in Bamberg with superb summer weather in one of Europe’s most beautiful and most perfectly preserved cities. All 95 of the orchestra’s young musicians hosted by local families, being treated to wonderful hospitality and experiencing the local culture through the families, many with sons and daughters of a similar age to the Australians. A very large audience of 1,100 people giving the orchestra a rapturous ovation, both at the end of the first half of the concert and at the end of the concert; a discerning audience that was used to hearing the Bamberg Symphony Orchestras – one of Europe’s leading orchestras – perform here. An orchestra energised by the occasion and performing at an exceptionally high level. The Australian Ambassador recognising both the significance of the orchestra’s quality and the occasion (40th anniversary of the orchestra’s first international tour) and travelling all the way from Berlin specifically for the concert.

Main background: the Altes Rathaus (old town hall) straddles the fast-flowing Regnitz and is Bamberg’s signature image.

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