10 years JGO

"There was a friendliness all around, and the combination of that with
the intense discipline of the work, especially from the young people,
was moving. If the whole world had this combination of
friendliness and discipline it would be a much better place."
(quotation: David Tanenbaum)

The Jugendgitarrenorchester Baden-Württemberg

- projects 2001 and history -

The JGO with Terry Riley and David Tanenbaum 2001 after the recording-sessions at Kloster Bronnbach

The last, tenth year of its existence, the JGO did several extraordinary projects. Presumably nobody had foreseen in July 1991, when the orchestra was founded and the players, coming from all over the south of Germany assembled for the first time, that now, a decade later this ensemble has advanced to one of the top-formations of its type. Its reputation stretches far over the borders of Germany.

The most sensational event in the year of the anniversary was the cooperation with the American composer Terry Riley and the guitarist David Tanenbaum from San Francisco, who the JGO already in' 97 had accompanied at concerts in the Alte Oper Frankfurt and in Ansbach. The JGO recorded with them at the Bronnbach monastery near the German city of Wertheim a CD for the label Cadenza / Bayer - Records (US - distributer is Qualiton Imports Ltd. in Long Island City) Also the renowned German jazz-guitarist Michael Sagmeister participated as soloist.

Terry Riley is one of the really important composers, his work influenced the music of the last 40 years persistently. Together with Steve Reich, he is regarded as one of the initiators of the " Minimal Music ", - a composition-style, that as well as in the modern classic music also in Rock, Jazz and Fusion Music has considerable influence. Later Riley turned to the eastern combining this style with elements of Rock and Jazz.

For the JGO it is a very special honor that a composer, who is already admired as a living legend, has composed a piece (" Y Bolanzero ") for the ensemble and that he himself participated at the recordings and the subsequent concert. After that he found the following words for the orchestra:

"I was extremely impressed with the group's energy, dedication
and focus. The JGO did an amazing job of learning, shaping and
premiering a difficult new work. Not only did they play it well .....they
put everything they had into it. It Rocks!" (Zitat: Terry Riley)

In autumn, another CD was produced with the soloist Olaf Van Gonnissen in Biberach, where already four years ago "Mouvements Dynamiques", Bayer - Records, CAD 800890, originated. Beside these protruding activities, the orchestra played a whole row of concerts, doing the anniversary - tour in summer (Heidelberg, Mannheim and Rastatt) and in autumn four concerts in the area of Frankfurt.

Music makes friends

During the last 10 years approximately 120 players were members of the JGO, usually the number of active players is about 30 - 35. The conception of the youth-ensemble entails that a certain participant-fluctuation must always be accepted. Scholarships in foreign countries, change of interest or also overstepping of the age-limit (27) are the reason for this. Nevertheless most players remain for several years in the orchestra, at present two of the former incorporators are still with it. Not always, it is easy to keep up the continuity and the level of the musical work in view of this fact. But in the orchestra, the young musicians experience a lot of motivation. Their commitment over the years led to a continuous development and increase of musical and technical abilities. For example, once a group of players practiced at night (3:30 a.m) a very difficult avant-garde piece - after an already nine-hour rehearsal! . When accidentally the conductor passed they asked him wheather he would help them with their nightly activity!

Also the social contacts among each other, friendships that in the orchestra have contribute to the high motivation. Former members, after leaving the JGO, have established the " South German guitar-orchestra ", which assembles twice in the year for rehearsels and conceerts. The knowledge about participating in a fantastic and very special project builds a remarkable spirit of responsibility and hepfulness among the players.

as it began

1991, Arnold Sesterheim was member in the committee of the music counsil of Baden- Wuerttemberg. It was due to his initiative and advice that the music counsil decided to establish a guitar-orchestra in addition to the already existing youth-ensembles and orchestras . With an announcement young talented players were invited to the first reunion, rehearsels and a concert-concert in July ' 91 in Rastatt. It was then directed by Sesterheim himself and this first concert of the JGO turned into success. Further rehearsels followed, Sesterheim contracted as co-conductor Eberhard Wilhelm who stuck to the orchestra until 1997 and who led the first foreign tour to the " Festival de Plectro " in Spain in the summer of 1993. Still today, the ones who participated this trip portray the experiences of it enthusiastically the concerts in churches, the good meal of the region, the friendliness of the hosts and the extremely stimulating festival-atmosphere. For the self-awareness of the orchestra was this a crucial moment.

1994, Arnold Sesterheim retreated from the active work with the orchestra, now coordinating the activities rather in the background, remaining musical director however. As new conductor, Helmut Oesterreich started with the orchestra: (Quotation H.Oe: " ..yes, I was steamrollered by the events downright at that time. End ' 93 I got a phone call from Arnold Sesterheim who asked me whether I wouldn't like to collaborate. I turned into the meanwhile traditional January rehearsels and worked with the orchestra on one mouvement of Steve Reichs "Electric Counterpoint", a graphically notated composition with tape and the famous Pink - Panther - Theme. I noticed the enormous playing-abilities and musical talent very quickly and troubled me to scoop this out and to create a homogeneous orchestral sound. There was an concert then in Rastatt and after that I was asked to continue the work. The next project would be a 10 days tour in February to Russia / St. Petersburg, furthermore a week in May with concerts in Saxony and finally in the same year a big concert-tour to South-East-Asia, Thailand and Laos ".)

some highlights

St. Petersburg:
When we arrived the temperature was -27° Celsius but beautiful sunshine. There were two concerts in the city itself and one in the 100km remote city of Nowgorod. Each time the ensemble was celebrated enthusiastically, apparently an accumulation of so many guitarists worked exotically. On the concert-free days, there was a sightseeing-program, which contained the visit at the Zarenpalast " Peterhof ", the famous painting-gallery " Hermitage " and the Kirov - ballet. The players were accommodated in families. Despite the more or less existing language-barriers, the people met them with an exuberant cordiality and hospitality. Although the poverty was obvious, everybody was very solicitous to spoil us with particular hospitality: beds were evacuated for us, candies, meat and fresh fruits were served and the Russian kind of friendship had particalarly to be survived by a steadiness in drinking Wodka.

The close contact however made possible also serious conversation about the current political situation, economy, democracy, communism, Tschernobyl etc. Beside the concerts and the musical experience, this friendly interpersonal contact certainly was one of the most valuable experiences of this trip.

Thailand / Laos:
Everything began with preparatory rehearsels the day before the trip in Heidelberg. From Frankfurt then the group first flew to Athens with Olympic Airways having a 15-hour stay there and then continued with a jumbo to Bangkok Bangkok offers the impression an extremely lively and busy city. Impossible to portray in afew lines all the new and overpowering impressions! The JGO played two concerts in this city, one organized by the German Embassy, the other " open air ", with deafening noise of the passing motorboats on the river. The high humidity affected that the bridge of the instrument of one player came off with pure bang in the middle of the performance.

Public transport in Thailand

Khon Kaen, the capital of the northeastern province Isan, was the next destination. We reached it with the night train. In comparison to Bangkok, this city is much more quietly and well clear. We almost could reach everything in the center walking or with the bike-rikscha. Fascinating here the everyday life, the houses and stands of the craftspersons, the market, the bewitching smell-variations. The concert in the university was one of the most successful of the whole tour.

Our last destination was Vientiane, the capital of Laos. This city again offers a completely diffrent appearance. On the first gaze, it is to be seen that Laos is one of the poorest countries of the world. The life seems to go on slowly here. One hour delay, somebody told us, works still as punctual. We should not be surprised if things do not function. - We took it patiently and tried to adjust to the mentality of improvising. The concert in the " Circus of Russian - Laotian Friendship " had truly a very strange character, the numerous people came in and went out during the performance, many children were in the public, but also here an immense enthusiasm was shown to the orchestra.

European Youth Music Festival - Kopenhagen '96 / CD - Recording / Pat Metheny
At this festival, that offered for more than 6000 young musicians coming from all over Europe, the JGO got the big privilege to play in the opening-concert and was selected to play one of the commissioned composition (quotation: ...amazingly well together!"). As further conductor Roland Boehm from Biberach joined in, replacing Eberhard Wilhelm. The most exciting event in Copenhagen took place outside the official program however. A member of the orchestra had found out that the jazz-guitar - giant Pat Metheny was in the city, he had a concert in the local jazz-club. Since our repertoire piece of Steve Reich originally was dedicated to him, we wanted to try to meet him introduce our interpretation to him. Actually we succeeded to find out his hotel. The hotel-manager agreed that we played for him at the time of his arrival in the lobby as a surprise. This succeeded, Metheney was obviously happy, he listened to our performance very interestedly and alertly. In the subsequent common press-interview, he said, he was very impressed (quotation: "thank you guys, brilliant sound")

JGO - membersr with Pat Metheny in Kopenhagen

Then in the autumn of the year, the JGO recorded its first CD " Mouvements Dynamiques ", that was highly appreciated by the press. The repertoire consisted mainly of modern, avant-garde

music. The composers Violeta Dinescu and Susanne Erding - Swiridoff, Roland Boehm and Eberhard Wilhelm as well as Peter Hoch contributed interesting new pieces.

Prag - Tschechien 1997 - Leo Brouwer 1998 - Australien 1999
With this repertoire, the Jugendgitarrenorchester in 1997 again undertook a tour, this time to the Czech Republic and Prague. That was organized completely by a member of the orchestra. A concert for children in a school left the most lasting impression. The program was presented to the young listeners with homoristic comments what brought the mood in the hall to the utmost excitement. We met the composer Vaclav Kucera and the Czech musicians "Due Boemi di Praga" (bassclarinet, piano) in another concert in Prague. Acooperation resulted with both from it: Kucera composed an effective piece for the JGO, which was played much on the Australia-tour, Due Boemi were the soloists in a composition of Roland Boehm, conducted ' 98 by Leo Brouwer. Brouwer, one of the the world-wide most important classical guitar protagonists was invited by the JGO as a guest conductor. After a two-day preparation in the youth-hostle Baden-Baden he punctually came in through the door of the rehearsel hall. After a short greeting, he immediately switched to conducting. Quickly, he proved as a really inspiring, spirited and competent conductor, who demanded very much from the players. During only a few days, he succeeded in stimulating the youthful guitarists to an astonishing increase of their playing. He treated the players like professionals, sometimes nearly as if they were colleages. The result then was presented in a concert which was recorded for broadcasting. Brouwer himself apparently had much fun working with the orchestra and Brought up the idea to establish contact to the Cuban guitar-ensemble "Sonantas Habaneras".

Roland Boehm - Josef Horák - Leo Brouwer - Emma Kovárnová
after the concert in Baden-Baden

Finally after the concert in the Kurhaus Baden-Baden there was a big party until lasting till next morning and there was amply opportunity to talk extensively with the maestro. But already the days before, in the rehearse-pauses or in the evening with a beer, we got to know him as an uncomplicated, humorous and very cordial man, who always had an ear for questions and concerns. Of course he also gladly told lots of anecdotes from his diversified musicians -life.

Australien / Singapur

The up to now biggest trip led the orchestra in1999 - after an inter-stop in Singapore with concert in the German school - for four weeks to Australia. 35 players, 2 conductors, the manager and 42 instruments, altogether 96! luggage-pieces had to be checked in at the airports. Seven times the JGO took an airplane on this tour. This in any means outstanding tour again brought worthful musical experiences, contacts, meetings with composers and guitarists, and of course also impressions into Asian ways of life in Singapore and knowledge of an unique continent at the other end of the world. " Down under ", like the Australians themselves call their situation on the globe. In each of the following cities the JGO performed at least once, sometimes twice: Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydneys, Canberra and Brisbane. In Australia, there is a quite active guitar-ensemble-tradition, nevertheless the JGO was much celebrated everywhere . In Perth the JGO was "featured ensemble" of a guitarensemble festival (quotation: ...they are really world class!"), in Adelaide und Melbourne (at the renowned Victorian College of the Arts) in addition to the concerts there were workshops and lectures about ensembleplaying, in Sydney the Australian composers Charlton und Plankenhorn attended the concert, in order to listen how the Germans iterpreted teir pieces. On the day after the concert, the whole orchestra was invited to sailing in the bay, passing the famous Operahouse and Harbour Bridge waterside.In Canberra, we visited a wildlife - park and watched kangaroos, dingos and koala-bears. Thos members of the group who were patient enough waited until we were in Brisbane, our last destination to buy a Digeridoo. Some already did this in Perth and always had to carry along the bulky souvenir. For lodging usually served " bachpacker's resorts ". Unforgettable, when the conductor Roland Boehm was cooking in the evening pasta and tomatoe - garlic - sauce for the entire group.

EXPO 2000 - Tour and guests from Cuba

In the millennium the JGO was invited to participate in the cultural program of the Expo in Hannover. The main piece of the performances there was the " Fantasia para un Gentilhombre " of Joaquin Rodrigo with soloist Olaf Van Gonnissen, professor for guitar at Hamburg conservatory. The condition to participate at the Expo was to come with a foreign partner - ensemble. The JGO remembered the idea of Leo Brouwer and invited the Cuban ensemble " Sonantas Habaneras " with ist director Jesús Ortega. They brought much Latin American and Cribbean music. Besides three performances at the Expo, the two ensembles shaped a common program, that was played also in various German cities: in Fulda, Kassel, Bielefeld and Muenster. Now the JGO has got an invitation from the Cubans to come to Havanna and perform at the International Guitar-Festival '02, the concert will be the 14 of May at the Teatro Roldan.

The projects of the Jugendgitarrenorchester are enabled by the financial support of the German Music-Council (Baden-Württemberg) in collaboration with the BDZ (German Society of Plucked Instruments). Their commitment for the music of young people is a very pleasant and welcome contribution to help gifted young musicians to develop and. The positive impulses, the musical experiences, the contact to foreign cultures and foreign musicians are highly to be estimated impressions. That extensively causes tolerance and mutual understanding, an aspect, that cannot at all be overrated especially in view of the youngest dreadful terrorist and warlike events.

Music makes friends, and we hope that the Jugendgitarrenorchester will be supported also in the future in order to keep up the level it gained and to be able to undertake more exciting projects.

CDs:

Y Bolanzero (Bayer - Records CAD 800879)
Mouvements Dynamiques (Bayer - Records CAD 800916)
Danzas y Fantasias (in Vorbereitung, erscheint 2002)
reference (JGO-003, eigene Edition des Orchesters)
down under - das JGO live in Australien (JGO 004, eigene Edition des Orchesters)
Expo - Tour 2000 live! (JGO 005, eigene Edition des Orchesters)