8th European Festival of Amateur Orchestras

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The 8th European Festival of Amateur Orchestras was held between 21 and 24 May in Dalfsen in the east of The Netherlands close to the border with Germany. Seven amateur and youth orchestras took part in the festival which included performances by the orchestras and workshops for all participants in one of five festival orchestras. Among the participants was the Mayo Youth Orchestra who were on their first trip abroad.

The Festival was organised jointly by the European Association of Amateur Orchestras (EAAO) and the European Association of Youth Orchestras (EAYO), the two organisations which merged to form the European Orchestra Federation (EOFed) on May 21st.

The workshops for participants covered a wide variety of activities including rehearsals and performance of the opening and final movements of Mahler 4 and The Snowman by Howard Blake (including a screening of the film with the orchestra providing accompaniment), performances of Allegro for Four String Orchestras by Hans Wijnberg and Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis by Vaughn Williams by the festival string orchestra, Dutch symphonic music by Wagebaar and Berlioz and a ‘Jazz for Beginners’ workshop in improvisation for classical players.There were also opening performances by the Haydn Jeugd Strijkorkest (Haydn Youth String Orchestra) and the FASO Blazersensemble – the wind ensemble of the Dutch association of amateur orchestras.

This Festival has been organised every three years by EAAO and will continue under the new banner of EOFed. The new EOFed website will be online soon with details and photographs. We’ll let you know when it’s up and running.

Allin, IAYO


Somewhat related, here is a video of the Haydn Jeugd Strijkorkest perfroming Mendelssohn’s String Symphony No. 10 from 2006.