The European Student Chamber Orchestra - Western Balkan Tour 2011

The European Student Chamber Orchestra is organised under the Sida supported project Widening Participation on the Road to Membership. The project aims to tune academies of the Western Balkans with European educational and administrative standards at the higher education level, and to widen participation in higher music education by better and easier access for children and youth to early stage higher music education.

With the aim to improve relations between the Western Balkan institutions at European level and at student level, a joint European Student Chamber Orchestra composed by students of the academies in the region and several academies from other European countries has been created as a unique opportunity for students from different countries to meet and perform together in the Western Balkan region. The idea takes inspiration from the Erasmus Chamber Orchestra, which performed with great success in 2007 in Oslo and Brussels to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Erasmus Programme. The European Student Chamber Orchestra, composed by 19 students from 17 different countries and led by Pierre Amoyal, performed in Novi Sad, Belgrade, Banja Luka and Sarajevo in October 2011. The orchestra is also a metaphor of peace and integration between populations in Europe through the universal language of music.

The Orchestra

The orchestra consists of 19 students from various European Higher Music Education institutions, including five from the Western Balkans region. Below you can find the formation of the European Student Chamber Orchestra:

Violin I
Pierre Amoyal

Alice Milan-Conservatorio di Musica Santa Cecilia, Rome

Eva Camilla Eikaas Stalheim-Norwegian Academy of Music, Oslo

John Garner-Royal College of Music , London

Ana-Maria Marian-National University of Music, Bucharest

Milos Boskovic-The Music Academy of the University of Montenegro in Cetinje

Violin II
Dominika Fehér-Franz Liszt Academy of Music, Budapest

Raimundas Neverovas- Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, Vilnius

Tove Lund-Royal College of Music, Stockholm

Barbara Malcolm-The Fryderyck Chopin University of Music, Warsaw

Draska Zrnic-The Acdemy of Arts of the University of Banja Luca-Department of Music

Viola
Lidwine Dam-Royal Conservatoire, The Hague

Agnès Mauri- Escola Superior de Musica de Catalunya, Barcelona

Carrie Robinson-Musikhochschule Lübeck

Aida Dajic-The Music Academy of the University of Sarajevo

Cello
Jelena Ilic-University of the Arts in Belgrade-Faculty of Music

lauri Kankkunen- Sibelius Academy, Helsinki

Riet Van Den Fonteyne- Royal Conservatoire of Antwerp-Artesis University College

Matej Milosev-Music Academy, University of Zagreb

Double Bass
Milan Milanov-Academy of Arts of the University of Novi Sad-Department of Music

Pierre Amoyal

Pierre Amoyal is one of the most brilliant violinists of his generation. He was awarded a Premier Prix from the Conservatoire Nationale Supérieur de Musique et de Danse de Paris at the age of 12. At the age of 17 he departed for Los Angeles to study with Jascha Heifetz, with whom he studied for five years. There he enjoyed the privilege of performing chamber music in concerts as well as recording with Jascha Heifetz and Gregor Piatigorsky.

Since then Pierre Amoyal has been invited to play for the most eminent orchestras and has performed worlwide. He reguarly works with the most important conductors of our time (Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, Gúnter Herbig and Myung Whun Chung, among others) and his numerous recordings for Decca include works by Fauré, Chauson or Franck, as well as concertos by Dutilleux, Saint-Saëns and Respighi.

Pierre Amoyal plays one of the world's most celebrated violins, the Kochansky Stradivarius from 1717 which was miraculously recovered in Italy in 1991 after its theft in 1987.

 Schedule of the Tour

For more information about the orchestra, please don't hesitate to contact the AEC-Team.

For more information about the European Chamber Orchestra 2010, please click here