Fürth matches
The Junge Fürther Streichlzer are a youth symphony orchestra in the Middle Franconian city of Fürth . Along with the Nuremberg Youth Orchestra, they are the largest and best-known youth orchestra in the region and the city of Fürth's cultural flagship.
history
The Junge Fürth Streichlzer was founded in 1983 by the conductor and cellist Christel Opp, initially as a chamber ensemble. The orchestra soon grew to symphonic size and now consists of up to 150 musicians between the ages of 8 and 25. Christel Opp established regular concert tours and international workshops that the orchestra a. a. to France, Greece, Turkey, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Poland and the USA.
In 2003 Christel Opp resigned as chief conductor in order to devote herself to her various other interests. Her successor is the violinist Bernd Müller, who himself was the concertmaster of the Junge Fürth Matches for many years.
Orchestra and repertoire
The orchestra is divided into three age and ability levels:
In the pre-orchestra (from around 8 years of age, string instruments) the young musicians learn the basics of playing together in a weekly one-hour rehearsal.
The youth orchestra (from around 10 years of age) deepens the basics - also in weekly, one-hour rehearsals - and performs original literature from easy to moderately difficult in concerts.
From the age of 14 you can perform large concerts with the symphony orchestra . Here, symphonic works of medium to difficult difficulty are developed using all the instruments in an orchestra. The weekly rehearsals last 3 hours. Before concerts there are additional rehearsals of a few hours or a day.
The musical focus of the orchestra is on symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries, e.g. B. Works by Beethoven , Brahms , Tchaikovsky , Dvořák , Schumann , Bruckner , Ravel , Wagner , Shostakovich But new music is also occasionally on the program.
Concert preparation and concerts
Twice a year there is an intensive rehearsal phase in a castle to deepen the weekly rehearsals. The symphony orchestra rehearses for around 8 hours a day, the pre- and junior orchestra around 5 hours. Chamber music is often also played in the evenings. The rehearsal phases of the symphony orchestra last up to 6 days, those of the early and junior orchestra up to 3 days.
The Junge Fürth Streichlzer play around four symphony concerts a year. Most of them take place in the Stadttheater Fürth , but concerts have also been played in the Kulturforum Fürth , in the Nuremberg Tafelhalle or in the Erlangen Redoutensaal. In July there is traditionally an open air concert in the Fürth Südstadtpark. This always has a certain motto such as "Classic goes Hollywood" or "Last night of the Proms". In addition, the Fürth matches give innumerable church, chamber and children's concerts every year.