Written by Birgit Djupedal – Project Manager in The Norwegian Youth Orchestra Association (UNOF)
This year we, The Norwegian Youth Orchestra Association, De Unges Orkesterforbund (UNOF) turns 50 years old. We were founded in 1974 by a group of school orchestras. Since then, we have grown into a stable and sturdy association with 5700 members and 184 orchestras. We have used a few years to plan their 50th jubilee and now we are in the middle of it. The jubilee shouldn’t just be something for the youth orchestras, but a collaboration with the professional symphonic orchestras and the adult amateur orchestras. It has also been important that our projects would be sustainable and could live beyond 2024. Here are a few examples of the activities for the jubilee:
Festivity – the theme song of The Orchestra Year
UNOF commissioned a piece by a very talented composer, Ingebjørg Vilhelmsen, to be the theme song of The Orchestra Year. It’s called Festivity and is our musical meeting point. The piece is only 2 minutes long and written in a few different versions. The idea is that all our orchestras can be able to play it. The sheet music is free for our members throughout 2024. So far it has been performed at around twenty concerts where the largest audience was around 3000 people. You can hear the piece here:
Side by side-projects with the professional symphonic orchestras
During 2024 we will have side by side-projects with seven of the professional symphonic orchestras in Norway. Around 600 children will get a chance to sit next to a professional musician during rehearsals and a concert. The concerts are very different both regarding repertoire, the age group of the young musicians and the concept of the project. Here are links to photos and articles from two of our projects (in Norwegian):
Lydfryd – 10 new pieces for youth orchestras
We wanted to commission new music for our member orchestras so that the sound of The Year of Orchestra could last beyond 2024. A project group chose 10 composers and paired them with two orchestras each to work with. This has resulted in interesting, funny, beautiful and exciting new music for our orchestras many years to come. Here is more information about the project and the composers:
The Orchestra Day April 20th – a celebration of orchestras
We have declared April 20th as The Day of Orchestra. We have celebrated this day since 2022 as a kick off to our jubilee. This year we made a music video showing what we think orchestra is all about. You can see the video here:
We hope that The Orchestra Day will spread. Celebrate it next year, post a picture or video of it on social media and use the #orchestraday!
WFAO 