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.
» Return to the front page