The Calgary Youth Orchestra of Alberta, Canada returned from a successful tour of Germany earlier this summer, where they visited and performed in cities across the country. Performances took place at the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church in Berlin, St. Nikolai Church in Jüterbog, the Reformed Protestant Church in Leipzig, and the Kleiner Golden Hall in Augsburg. Orchestra conductor Edmond Agopian said the following about the group’s experience abroad:
Calgary Youth Orchestra at the Brandenburg Gate
Calgary Youth Orchestra at the Thomaskirche Johann Sebastian Bach Statue
Calgary Youth Orchestra Performance in the Kleiner Golden Hall
The Calgary Youth Orchestra tour to Germany was extremely valuable to the CYO members in terms of the strong connection between the music we performed and the places we visited and performed in. Aside from performing for wonderfully enthusiastic audiences, the players were excited about all the museums, palaces, castles, art galleries and the cities we visited. The tour also included a visit to the Dachau concentration camp which was represented in our concert program by a work by Erwin Schulhoff, a Jewish Czech composer who died in one of Dachau’s subsidiary concentration camps in 1942. I am greatly impressed and grateful to MCI for being able to put together a tour based on my itinerary and at a convenient time for the CYO. The places we visited or performed in such as Berlin, Leipzig, Munich, Weimar, Bayreuth, Halle, Potsdam and so on, were closely connected to each composer that we performed on the tour (or performed recently), and therefore the music really resonated with the students and with the audiences: Mendelssohn, Richard Strauss, Liszt, J.S. Bach, C.P.E. Bach, Mozart, Schulhoff, Handel, Wagner, etc. Thank you MCI. Edmond Agopian, Conductor Calgary Youth Orchestra
Visit the tour Photo Gallery