The emotional states and mood swings of the musicians of the Thun City Orchestra when discussing the realization of their anniversary project. The Big Wig (The big wig) could probably best be compared with those of marathon runners before, during and after the competition: during preparation, sometimes despair and fear of not making it, then euphoria and an irrepressible will to persevere; during the event, full concentration and absorption in the moment; after the work is done, a mixture of pride in having achieved something special, satisfaction and the need for rest, as well as "never again" thoughts and the simultaneous search for the next challenge.

In fact, for its 125+1 year anniversary - the project had to be postponed for a good year due to the pandemic - the TSO gave itself a gift with the performance of The Big Wig together with the singer and exceptional vocal artist Andreas Schaerer and his band "Hildegard Lernt Fliegen" (Hildegard Learns to Fly). Starting with the fact that the one-hour work for voice, jazz sextet and symphony orchestra with six thematic movements requires a huge orchestration that is unusual for classical orchestras - it requires eight percussionists alone.

Composition commissioned by Lucerne Festival for the first time with amateur orchestra

Schaerer had The Big Wig The work was commissioned by the Lucerne Festival in 2015 and premiered in the same year together with the Lucerne Festival Academy Orchestra, which specializes in contemporary music. Since then, Schaerer and his band have presented the work with several orchestras and at various venues in Switzerland and abroad - including the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. The name The Big Wig refers to the old, overpowering composers with their gray wigs, who were clearly breathing down Schaerer's neck while he was composing.

In Thun, Schaerer and his five bandmates have The Big Wig is now being performed for the first time with an amateur orchestra. And the large audience in the Schadausaal at the KKThun was treated to a truly extraordinary concert experience at the start of the subscription season in September.

The atmospheric colored light that enveloped the musicians on stage was just a small hint of the "otherness". Schaerer melts into The Big Wig through-composed-orchestral classical music and impulsive-spontaneous jazz into a new sound language. What's more, his multifaceted performance as band and orchestra leader, vocal acrobat, singer and storyteller gives rise to an original art of performance.

The highlight of the highlights, however, is the "Human Trumpet", which Schaerer repeatedly "plays" with his voice in a deceptively genuine way, full of tenderness and with a broad soul - and in doing so makes the essence of his art tangible for a brief moment: the inseparable unity of masterful virtuosity and touchingly revelatory depth.

Review of the successful marathon project

After the two intensive concerts, the EOV editor spoke to TSO President and cellist Christina Froidevaux about the successful marathon project.

Christina Froidevaux, how did the collaboration with Andreas Schaerer and his band "Hildegard Lernt Fliegen" actually come about?

A violinist from the TSO knows Andreas Schaerer and had The Big Wig once live. He suggested the collaboration to our orchestra. However, I wasn't part of the decision-making bodies when it was selected. The project should have been realized more than a year ago and had to be postponed due to the pandemic.

What was it like rehearsing with Andreas Schaerer and the whole band? What were the challenges?

It was extremely exciting! Andreas told us a lot about the work and also gave us a lot of other input. He and our conductor Laurent Gendre harmonized extremely well, which made it easy for us. On the one hand, playing with the band was easier than the previous rehearsals without them, as the more difficult rhythms almost always occur in the band, but on the other hand it was also difficult, especially with the solos, because the band members naturally took a lot of rhythmic liberties there. I think that was also a challenge for Laurent, as he's not used to it.

Did the other players like it?

We had fewer applications than usual for this project. (Editor's note: the musicians from the TSO's pool of players register for any number of the five subscription concert projects before the season). I also sensed a certain skepticism among those who signed up at the beginning. But by the week of the concert at the latest, the spark was ignited in everyone. I saw a lot of smiling faces - more than usual. Perhaps people simply dare to show their emotions more with this music. Perhaps we were infected by the extroverted singer. In any case, I hope that this will have a lasting effect!

Are you happy with the result?

Yes, we are very satisfied. It was a completely new experience that was also good for the whole orchestra. At the same time, we're also looking forward to playing music again, where you can express yourself on your own instrument. We cellists, for example, played more plucked instruments and percussion than cello.

After the Big Wig experience, would you do a similar project again in the future?

Sure, but not immediately. Inflation is not good. Unfortunately, there aren't a thousand such works that would be suitable and interesting. It wasn't a conventional crossover with the songs of a band accompanied by an orchestra. The Big Wig was composed orchestrally right from the start, which makes a huge difference.

How big was the audience? I had the impression that there were more people in the hall when I went to the concert than at your "normal" subscription concerts?

The Schadausaal was almost full twice. Not only did more people come, other people came too. And the audience was much younger than usual. But I also received a lot of positive feedback from older people and subscribers. I was particularly pleased about that.

> www.thunerstadtorchester.ch

> www.hildegardlerntfliegen.ch

Miriam Schild - From September 15 to 17, 2023, the next Swiss Youth Music Festival (SJMF2023) will take place in St. Gallen under the motto "Real Passion". More than 5,000 young musicians and their formations will showcase their quality and dedication to music throughout Switzerland on the OLMA grounds. The festival is organized by the Youth Music Association, the Swiss Federal Orchestra Association EOV, accordeon.ch and the Swiss Drum and Pipe Association. At the Swiss Youth Music Festival #burgdorf19 three years ago, "our" string and symphony orchestras took part for the first time alongside brass bands and tambourines. The Orchestra Giovanile della Svizzera Italiana (OGSI), the Schyz Youth Orchestra and the Solothurn Regional Youth Symphony Orchestra seized the opportunity and were pioneers in our field.

We are now once again looking for the most passionate youth symphony orchestras and youth string orchestras to represent the EOV and "classical" orchestral music at the upcoming SJMF in St. Gallen. Do you want to present your orchestra to the whole of music-loving Switzerland on a big stage? Then register for the SJMF today and the EOV will give you a financial boost for your participation! We will cover 20 percent of the participation fees for the first ten EOV youth orchestras that officially register for the SJMF2023 in St. Gallen. Details will be announced after registration. EOV membership is a prerequisite.

In addition, all participating EOV orchestras will be presented in the Schweizer Musikzeitung (SMZ), in the EOV Newsletter and at the EOV Delegates' Assembly. The entire EOV Board will be on site in St. Gallen to support "its" youth orchestras.

Actively participating in the SJMF2023 with a 30-minute performance on one of the large festival stages and attending concerts by countless other formations, workshops and huge after-parties will be an unforgettable experience for everyone. Take advantage of this unique platform for your orchestra to compete fairly at Switzerland's largest youth music festival and celebrate a glittering party with thousands of young people.

The youth symphony orchestras and youth string orchestras can participate in the following categories:

Category 1A) Competition with classification for children's orchestras up to 16 years of age

Category 1B) Competition with classification for youth orchestras up to 23 years of age

Category 2) Free audition without classification with jury discussion

You can find the detailed announcement and the festival regulations including an addendum for our symphony and string orchestras with all information on age regulations and costs on the SJMF website. Register here for the largest Swiss youth music festival in St. Gallen by the end of January 2023: www.sjmf2023.ch

We will be happy to provide you with further information and answer your questions at any time:

Johannes Reinhard, President EOV: johannes.reinhard@eov-sfo.ch, 079 212 87 58

So we - a group of board members, the concertmaster, the head of the wind section and the head of the program committee - began to think about the procedure for the succession. As a young orchestra with little experience of changing conductors, we received valuable advice from Johannes Schläfli, professor of orchestral conducting at the ZHdK and a much sought-after conductor, for which we are very grateful. Over 50 people responded to our job advertisement in the course of the 2021 summer semester, some of whom even came from more distant regions of Europe.

Applications from all over Europe

For the three-stage selection process, our committee used a rating procedure to select ten candidates for the first round during a long night at the end of September last year. In October, we conducted a half-hour interview with each person and then invited six of them to the first audition in November. There they had 30 minutes to rehearse with the orchestra (Beethoven's 5th Symphony from our last concert program). Afterwards, all orchestra members present selected three candidates for the second audition by means of ballot papers.

At this second meeting in January 2022, the three candidates worked with our orchestra for a whole hour on a work from the current program that had not yet been performed - Brahms' 3rd Symphony. This was followed by an extraordinary general meeting at which the future conductor was elected: Manuel Oswald, who lives in Zurich, will be the musical director of the POR from October 2022. Once the contract had been signed, we soon set about jointly deciding on the works for our two 2023 concert programs.

At the same time, the Board was busy organizing the farewell concerts for our previous conductor.

New work by the "house composer"

For his last concert in the fall, Jan Sosinski requested a new composition by our "in-house composer", head of winds, music administrator and bassoonist Alexander Sloendregt, as well as the Piano Concerto in E minor op. 11 by Frédéric Chopin, for which we were able to secure the renowned pianist Reto Reichenbach as soloist. The third work will be Franz Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2.

Alexander Sloendregt's latest work Farewell bears the subtitle Bądź zdrów!Farewell!¡Que te vaya bien! and refers to Jan Sosinski's country of origin Poland, to Switzerland as one of the countries of his musical work and to the country he has chosen for his retirement: sunny Spain. He uses typical folk tunes from these three countries and skilfully arranges them with instruments typical of the respective countries. The work is dedicated to Jan Sosinski.

We are delighted to be able to give our conductor such a personal farewell present and cordially invite you all to our concerts.

Farewell concerts by Jan Sosinski with the Philharmonic Orchestra Riehen: 24.09.2022, 19.00, Dornach, Goetheanum and 25.09.2022, 17.00, Riehen, Landgasthof.

Katrin Mathieu

... is President of the Riehen Philharmonic Orchestra

> www.phil-orchester-riehen.ch

Barbara Steinmann - On the very first evening in Sofia, Ventseslav Nikolov, one of Bulgaria's most important musicians, takes us by candlelight into the sound world of his Venetian cello from 1726, with music ranging from Bach to Georgian folk music of today. In this atmosphere, a cheerful mood quickly develops in our group, which consists mainly of violin-playing members of various Swiss amateur orchestras.

Georgi Palahutev, our excellent state-certified hiking guide and tour leader, as well as his wife and the cellist's daughter accompany us throughout the trip. With their incredibly differentiated knowledge and exciting narrative style, they are able to inspire us with the impressive and diverse history and culture of Bulgaria and allow us to discover the beauty of the sparsely populated nature on the hikes through the Vitosha Mountains or the karst landscapes near Veliko Tarnovo.

Unexpected encounters with a tortoise, wild deep red peonies or the monkey orchid make the hearts of the botanists among us beat faster. The huge Rila Monastery (Unesco World Heritage Site) near the Greek-Macedonian border with the associated hermitage of the founder Ivan Rilski, the idyllically situated Preobrazhenski Monastery in the north or the church hidden in a barn with unique frescoes bear witness to the rich Bulgarian Orthodox church history.

The sacred highlight of the trip is a concert in Sofia with Christian Orthodox chants. The powerful voices of the choir and soloists greeted us with Easter cookies in front of the church. Moved and moved to tears, we listen to their overwhelming singing.

After visiting a rose oil distillery in the Rose Valley, our last stage of the journey, we drive to Plovdiv, enveloped in the scent of roses, where a hustle and bustle awaits us in the huge entrance hall of the Ramada Hotel with a hint of the slightly run-down "grandeur" of earlier times. Registration for the 12th EOFed Festival is underway, with 350 people registered and a strong representation of the younger generation.

Nelleke Greusebroek, Dutch and Vice President of the European Orchestra Federation (EOFed), gives us a warm welcome. Workshops ranging from baroque, classical and film to Bulgarian folk music and jazz are held in the hotel rooms for individual participants. Two days of enthusiastic rehearsals at a high level with highly motivated conductors. In the evening, the first concerts of the registered (youth) symphony orchestras and ensembles, including those from Latvia, Estonia, Hungary, Bulgaria and Germany, will take place in the open-air Roman Theater. This is located in the middle of the beautiful Capital of Culture Plovdiv. No hustle and bustle in the streets, lively cafés, a Mediterranean atmosphere, men playing chess and cards in the parks - the ideal setting for an orchestra festival! The president Jüri-Ruut Kanguur, Johannes Reinhard, Daniel Kellerhals and the organizing teams deserve a big thank you, everything runs smoothly!

On the last day, the workshop participants eagerly await their performances at various locations and make contacts. Music brings people together! The standard of the performances is high and the audience is in high spirits. The first "swinging" movement from Symphony No. 1 in E minor by Florence B. Price, a forgotten Afro-American composer (1987-1953), remains in the memory. In the evening, the crowning finale in the Roman Theater with an open-air atmosphere. Not even the wind, which occasionally sweeps the notes away from the stands, is able to silence the Estonian players; the "throaty" songs of the Bulgarian singers reverberate, as does the 7/8 time played by the orchestra.

We look back on our wonderful time in Bulgaria with a touch of nostalgia. A big thank you goes to Hedi Boller for the great organization of the EOV trip!

Nadine Lang - The Orchesterverein Dottikon (OVD) enjoys a reputation in Freiamt as an excellent amateur orchestra. The traditional orchestra has been performing as a symphonic ensemble since 1998 and can draw on a broad repertoire of baroque, classical and romantic music. The Orchesterverein Dottikon presents a new program three times a year: In addition to classical symphony concerts, the orchestra also develops projects with choir, chamber music at the castle, serenades in the rose garden and Viennese Heurigen evenings, symphonic church concerts and musical potpourris. The aim is always to deliver a musically valid interpretation.

The Dottikon Orchestra Association was founded in 1922 by the legendary priest and later canon Leopold Seiler. Initially, the association served to embellish and provide musical accompaniment to church services at Easter, Pentecost, Ascension Day, Prayer Day, Christmas and New Year. The parish priest himself gave free violin lessons at the time and knew how to get the people of Dottikon, then a village of 1000 people, interested in orchestral music. Leopold Seiler was not only the founder, he was also the first president and conducted the Dottikon Orchestra Association for 24 years. Kurt Fischer, cellist and also president for many years, also left his mark on the association. He was an active member for over 60 years and built string instruments himself. Some of the musicians play an instrument from the Fischer violin-making workshop.

The association currently has 40 active members aged between 17 and 79. The long-standing concertmaster is the violinist Sonja Jungblut from Hausen. The conductor since 2016 has been the internationally active Roman Brogli-Sacher, who comes from Brugg. He conducted the orchestra of the Hanseatic City of Lübeck from 2000 to 2015. In 2012, the ensemble of Theater Lübeck under the opera direction of Roman Brogli-Sacher was selected for Wagner's The Ring of the Nibelung was awarded the ECHO Klassik in the Music DVD Production of the Year category. From 2012 to 2015, Roman Brogli-Sacher was artistic director of the Hallwyl Castle Opera. He has also been a permanent guest conductor of the orchestra and theater in Verona since 2012 and chief conductor of the Jiangsu Symphony Orchestra in Nanjing, China, since 2015. He is also director of the Lake Zurich Youth Symphony Orchestra.

To mark its 100th anniversary, the Dottikon Orchestra Association is presenting several major concert projects throughout the year. Romantic spring concerts full of highlights on the first weekend in April in Wohlen, Dottikon and Brugg (see article opposite) marked the beginning.

The next OVD concerts in the anniversary year are the matinee on Sunday, June 12, 11 a.m. at Rosen Huber in Dottikon and the serenade on Sunday, June 19, 3 p.m. at the Pflegi Muri.

This text was written by editor Nadine Lang and first appeared in the Wohler Anzeiger/Bremgarter Bezirks-Anzeiger/Der Freiämter. We were allowed to use the article in a slightly modified form for the SMZ with kind permission.