Red dot from JM logo Introducing the new identity of the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra

June 29th 2004

In June, with the signing of the final agreement between JMI and the orchestra’s new managers, it became official: JMI’s most cherished and most long-standing international project, the Jeunesses Musicales World Orchestra (JMWO), is back with a new concept and a new home in Valencia, Spain. The JMI News asked the new management team, Juan José Herrera de la Muela (photo-left) and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Josep Vicent (photo-right), to tell us more about this exciting new project.


For over 30 years the JM World Orchestra has attracted young musicians from the world over to experience high quality teaching by major conductors, improve their skills and perform under professional circumstances, meet others who share the same love of music, learn about different cultures and gain invaluable life experiences. The orchestra’s new Artistic Director and Principal Conductor Josep Vicent personally experienced this when he was a JMWO percussionist in the early nineties: “Being a member of the JMWO was really an opportunity to understand how amazing our profession can be, meeting fantastic performers from so many different countries and bringing the music to places where it is really welcome and needed. I still remember that it was then that I started dreaming about becoming a good conductor and about wanting to be a musician that takes an active part in the society he has to live in. The World Orchestra is a symbol of that. Also I traveled for the first time in my life to Canada, I played for the first time at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam (where I worked later for 8 years), so it was not only the music but many other first experiences that made it really unique. I have the feeling now that I became part of a big family that still travels with me.” Josep Vicent went on to build an outstanding reputation as a conductor with a distinctive character and a unique integrative approach of influences from other cultures and styles. He has been a guest conductor for many major orchestras in Spain and in the Netherlands, has written various multimedia productions and kept a close contact with many living composers. He is also the artistic director of the Amsterdam Percussion Group.


This JMWO tradition of understanding and solidarity through music, for which the orchestra was named “UNESCO Artist for Peace” in 1996, will live on in the new JMWO project. However, the new artistic approach is something very different and innovative as Josep Vicent explained: “Flexible, Young, Modern, Qualified, Inspiring and really Global in every aspect. These are the key words of my new artistic plan. Musicians will need to feel part of a group that will not only perform historic repertoire with the highest standards but will do it from a compromised point of view. New music and tradition will live side by side and our concerts will definitely be an event where theatrical aspects will also be considered and new technologies included. Concerts with a total concept and structure will also include co-operation with Plastic Arts. I want the JMWO to be seen in a few years as "The" orchestra of the New Millennium, this is where we (young performers) have a lot to say, it’s our time. The repertoire of the first session will follow those guidelines, and music from composers like Adams or Ligeti will share our podium with classics such as Strauss. The program will be made public within a few weeks. The new JMWO team is already working very hard on all aspects of the presentation tour to make sure our musicians understand straight away that they are part of a special team that loves music.”


With the support of JMI for his modern artistic plan and the skills of his diplomat partner Juan José de la Muela, Josep is confident in succeeding. He added: “Nowadays, more than ever, the music world needs ensembles like the JMWO, that will work with a real compromise to make a difference and create a modern approach that will attract younger audiences to all repertoires. It is a big honor for me to be able to share these plans with the young musicians that will be part of the orchestra, it’s definitely very inspiring. I have always had a true interest in learning about other cultures and the fact that the JMWO is made up of so many different countries is also a motivation that I don’t want to forget.”


To complete this introduction to the new JMWO concept and team, the JMI News asked the new Executive Director Juan José Herrera de la Muela the following questions.


JMI News: Could you tell me a little bit about your professional background and your personal interest in music?


Juan José de la Muela: One way or another, my life has always been linked to art, -art as a pleasure and art as knowledge, that is, as education in the widest possible sense. In my particular case, art management has become as well a way of life. I studied music and violin at the Madrid Conservatory, sang in choirs and later even started studying harmony and the piano. Despite being reasonably gifted, I understood (not too late, I am glad to say) that my approach to music was not going to be through “interpretation” or thorough musical studies but through different ways. As I said before managing and fully enjoying art is a cherished way of life to me. Later in life I studied philosophy and graduated in law. Then I became a career diplomat, working predominantly in the field of culture and, more specifically in art (fine arts, performing arts, music, literature…). My experience in the international arena with the Foreign Office enabled me to transfer to the Ministry of Culture where I was appointed Deputy General Director for Music and Dance, a task that entailed high responsibilities. It was my first close professional relationship with orchestras, opera houses, dance companies...etc. Nevertheless, as a haunting—but nice—melody, I will always remember my friend Reinhardt von Nagel, a harpsichord maker, whose courses in how to build and temperate a harpsichord taught me more about music than anywhere else. Then, thanks to my love for music and my career as a diplomat, I had the privilege of meeting many extraordinary musicians such as Josep Vicent. Some of them were second-to-none artists known world-wide, many of them were working discreetly and in love with music, unknown to the masses of the music industry, but successfully surviving in a ruthless market governed by its marketing laws.


JMI News: What motivated you to take on this adventure and re-launch the JMWO?


Juan José de la Muela: I happened to undergo one of those moments in life when changes are in the offing, when things are slightly blurred and the direction one’s life is going to take is not all too clear. New developments then, turn up in an unusual fashion, when the right person approaches, for example, who shares one’s ideas and resolutions. Then you can set out to develop a promising project about art, which includes many an important aspect: solidarity, peace, education, and last but not least, an idea of a cultural dialogue and co-operation in the world arena, and whose potential is enormous if led properly… Josep Vicent was such a person. The timing was right too and … well, I soon believed that it was realistic to consider the project, that it was worth it but also feasible. I knew that Spain could no doubt be a new cradle for a new JMWO. I was aware of Valencia’s excellent musical infrastructure and disposition, as well as its old, solid musical tradition, although there were other regions in Spain very interested and ready to house the orchestra. We knew from the very beginning too, Josep Vicent and I, that the JMWO was suffering from a lack of identity and had to be endowed with a permanent artistic and educational project, an idea that we firmly shared. But as professionals we never forget, of course, the questions of a day-to-day healthy survival of the orchestra as such: to make it equally attractive to audiences and to the musicians, to make recordings, to divulge its uniqueness, to make it popular in the world. All those reasons were there, yes, and convinced me. But I have to add the most important one: I realized that in all of them there was a bit of my old ideal to carry out a cultural project on music, on art and communication on a world scale, a project involved with peace and solidarity, to try to improve our education, to improve our vision of the multiplicity in which we all live.


JMI News: What are your plans and hopes for this new JMWO?


Juan José de la Muela: We now have started facing what I would call a “transition period”. It will last until the orchestra gathers anew and performs again not only next summer but in winter 2005/2006, when we will have gone through the first whole yearly cycle. Josep Vicent and myself have already set goals concerning: audiences, the repertoire, auditions, concert’s “mise en scène”, rehearsal sessions, renewed links with international organizations and a new jmi01ge for the JMWO and many others. But I have never liked boasting or sounding ambitious at a stage when I have hardly taken up full charge of all my future functions. I would prefer to say that we both prefer serious, professional work, far from wilting fashions or easy slogans, in which JMWO heritage will always remain protected, increased and expanded, but does not go with the wind; in short, we want the orchestra to last, and to be passed on to younger generations full of life and spirit … Taking into account that now, from an organizational, financial or institutional point of view, we are almost starting from scratch.


Finally, I would like to highlight that it goes without saying that a close, positive relationship with all JM national sections is essential. I want the Orchestra to become a real “world” Orchestra and I believe that the JMI network is of outstanding value and has a great role to play in achieving this aim.



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