megahertz – The 10th European Youth Music Festival turns all of Upper Austria into a stage
Megahertz
Copyright: Werner Andraschko
Press Conference
Tuesday, 11 November 2008
Landhaus, Room 233, Linz
One of the highlights of the Linz09 year: the 10th European Youth Music Festival will be taking place in Upper Austria from 21 to 24 May 2009. More than 8,000 young people from all over Europe will be coming to Upper Austria to make the country resound with their music. Upper Austria will be experienced through this festival as a hospitable land of culture – music will be in the air and that’s not the end of it!
Upper Austria – "With a mega heart for music!"
Upper Austria’s Landesmusikschulwerk, the province’s music school association, is unique: this is where music has been taught in its totality since 1977. The music schools are not only centres of artistic and musical training, they are also regional hubs of culture.
In 1977 there were 34 music schools, today there are 152 of them – a success story of musical education also compared with the rest of Europe. Nor has demand slackened after more than 30 years: at present around 57,000 pupils are receiving tuition from approximately 1,500 teachers.
This Upper Austrian success story was the reason why we invited the 10th European Youth Music Festival to come to Upper Austria in 2009, Linz’s European Culture Capital Year.
European Youth Music Festival
The first European Youth Music Festival took place in Munich in 1985, which was Europe’s “Year of Music”. This was followed by festivals in Strasbourg, Eindhoven, Budapest, Barcelona, Trondheim, Berne, Malmö/Copenhagen and, last year, in Budapest. The festival next year will be the first one to take place in Austria.
Thousands of young people gather at these festivals to make music together. Here music proves again and again to be a language that is universally understood. The culture and life style of the host country give each festival its special flair.
The Festival in Upper Austria
Host:
The Youth Music Festival is hosted by Upper Austria’s Landesmusikdirektion, the Conference of Austrian Music Schools and the European Music School Union (EMU). Linz09 is a cooperation partner of the Festival.
The European Music School Union is the umbrella organisation of national music school associations in Europe. It represents more than 6,000 music schools with a teaching staff of more 150,000 and four million pupils.
The Festival in Upper Austria will be attended by young people from all of the 26 member states of EMU. Upper Austria has issued additional invitations to its partner regions Sao Paulo, Western Cape, Bavaria, Shandong and Quebec. Ensembles from Western Cape have already given notice of their intention to participate.
Kickoff with a Pre-Festival:
In the runup to the festival proper a "pre-festival" from 19 to 20 May 2009 will be offering music schools from outside of Austria that are interested in contacts with an Austrian music school an opportunity to find a partner school here.
General Assembly of the European Music School Union
On 19 and 20 May 2009 the General Assembly of the European Music School Union will be taking place in Gmunden (Toscana Congress Center). Delegates from the 26 member countries will get together for two days for an international music forum. The themes discussed in Gmunden will include the role of music schools in the mediation of culture, "Music Schools in Southern Europe", "Musical Education in Austria" and "Acoustic space – the sensitization of hearing as a countercurrent to the 'high-volume' society".
The 10th European Youth Music Festival
The opening of the festival, an open air event on Linz’s Hauptplatz, is scheduled for 21 May 2009, 8:00 p.m.
On 22 May 2009 all of Upper Austria is transformed into a musical stage for Europe. The young people participating in the festival will be playing in concerts in all parts of the country, notably in Linz, Bad Ischl, Freistadt, Gmunden, Mondsee, Ried im Innkreis, Steyr, Vöcklabruck and Wels.
"Made in Austria" is the motto of a concert that will showcase young musicians from Austria’s provinces: Brucknerhaus, 22 May, 8:00 p.m.
Saturday, 23 May 2008, will be dedicated to "Treffpunkt Linz – Europe moves together" : the festival participants will be making music in thirty or so different locations in Linz’s squares, churches, museums, etc., from Pöstlingberg to SolarCity. From 10 a.m.
The Closing Ceremony will take place from 7 p.m. in the Intersportarena Linz. This will feature the "musical wave" – a joint project with composition students of the Anton Bruckner Universität. Under the guidance of Prof. Gunter Waldek all the festival participants and their instruments will become part of a wave reminiscent of the one we are familiar with from football arenas that can both be seen and heard.
Inquiries and organisation:
OÖ. Landesmusikdirektion
EMail: festival@megahertz.at; Internet: www.megahertz.at
