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North Rhine - Westphalia Youth Band (Germany)
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About seventy young musicians between the ages of 14 and 25 are members of the orchestra, most of them winners of the German national solo and ensemble competition Jugend Musiziert. All participants are chosen by audition. The repertoire of the orchestra includes works written or arranged for symphonic band from almost all musical epoches. Two times a year - during the Easter holidays and between Christmas and New Year - the orchestra members come together for a week of rehearsals at the North Rhine - Westphalia State Academy of Music in Heek/Nienborg. Through a special partnership with its European neighbors, especially the Netherlands, young people from other countries are often included in the wind orchestra's work. The management considers this as a contribution to the construction of a unified House of Europe. In addition to numerous concerts in Germany, the wind orchestra has undertaken concert tours to Belgium, Spain, Italy, Russia, Belorus, Denmark, Switzerland and to the United States of America. The orchestra has won several international competitions and has an excellent national and international reputation. In 1994, the band traveled to the United States of America and played various concerts at college campuses in the mid west. In 1995, the orchestra with conductors Reinhold Rogg and Andreas Hilner produced a CD with compositions of Richard Wagner, Friedrich Gulda, Hector Berlioz and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The 1998 concert tour took the wind orchestra to China. In the Summer of 1999, the orchestra undertook its second tour to the United States of America with concerts at the 9th WASBE Conference in San Luis Obispo, Morro Bay and Anaheim (Disney Land). International activities in the past few years include concerts in Spain, Switzerland, Austria and Italy. In the summer of 2004, the young musicians schedule includes concerts in Hungary and Austria. Since 1997, Pierre Kuijpers has been chief conductor of the wind orchestra. He studied oboe and conducting at the conservatories of Tilburg and Maastricht in The Netherlands. While working as an oboist in two symphony orchestras in the Netherlands (The Orchestra of the Opera of the Southern Netherlands and the Limburg Symphony Orchestra), he served as conductor of several symphonic bands in the Limburg region. In 1974, he won the "Golden Baton" at the international competition for conductors in Kerkrade, The Netherlands. From 1986 to 1995, he was Music Director of the Royal Dutch Military Band in The Hague. Currently, he teaches conducting at the Maastricht Conservatory and maintains a busy guest conducting schedule. |
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