The European Union Youth Orchestra spring tour in 2019 will see nine concerts across five different countries, namely Italy, Oman, Austria, Luxembourg and Germany, from April 9th to April 25th, 2019. More than a hundred players from all the current EU member states joined in March 2019 in Ferrara, Italy, to rehearse and work with expert instrumental tutors and professors before the arrival of Vasily Petrenko, EUYO’s Chief Conductor, who will lead them in concerts.

On 2019 Spring Tour, musicians of the European Union Youth Orchestra will have the opportunity to perform in great concert halls as diverse as the old-style Teatro Claudio Abbado in Ferrara, which retains most his 1798 décor, or the 2011-built Royal Opera House Muscat, whose lavish and luxurious style is unrivalled.

For the whole of 2019, the European Union Youth Orchestra has a theme that will run through. Its name is The Listening Project and aims to explore how musicians, as well as audiences, listen. Most of us arguably take listening for granted, yet it is undoubtedly a complex activity. Musicians are accustomed and trained to listen each other on stage, but listening as a general capability seems to be short in supply in our increasingly technological world, where polarising politics and individualism make harder for all of us to be able to listen the other.
 

During the 2019 Spring Tour, the EUYO launches a major new initiative called “Orchestra in CIttà!” as part of its residency in Ferrara, aimed at spreading the joy of both music-making and listening to all sections of the communities that make up the city of Ferrara. In order to achieve this aim, especially designed open rehearsals, concerts, instrument demonstrations, participation projects and outreach projects in Ferrara are taking place throughout the year.