April
May 2023
Since 2009, the MCO Academy has offered an educational model that provides young musicians with a high-quality orchestral experience and a unique platform for networking and international exchange. In addition to audition training, physical awareness classes, individual coaching and orchestral playing, the Academy also includes chamber music workshops which emphasize the MCO’s characteristic chamber music approach to music-making. Complemented by a mentoring programme, career talks and further activities, the Academy fosters creative and independent thinking and offers a comprehensive and modern approach for professional musicians of the 21st century.
For the 2023 edition of the Academy, the MCO has invited its long-time friend and collaborator George Benjamin. He will be conducting a semi-staged rendition of his own opera “Lessons in Love and Violence”. George Benjamin and librettist Martin Crimp’s second full-length opera – following the acclaimed Written on Skin – draws on the real-life relationship between Edward II and Piers Gaveston to explore how personal relationships can have fatal political consequences. The King lives in a close but uneasy relationship with his wife Isabel, their two children and his lover Gaveston. When the King banishes his military advisor Mortimer, he sets off a chain of devastating events.
The result of the intense work during the Academy days can be seen in performances in Dortmund, Cologne, Essen and Brussels.