Aberdeen International Youth Festival
Encyclopedia
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
's major international cultural events.
Every year Aberdeen International Youth Festival attracts over 1000 of the most talented young people in performing arts companies and music groups from across the globe. It provides a showcase for their talents and creates innovative and exciting new work by bringing them together with leading professionals and artists.
The event brings colour, spectacle and vibrant creativity to Aberdeen and the North East and has attracted talented companies from over 70 countries to Scotland. As well as the ticketed events the Festival stages a parade, open-air performances and a fringe programme in community venues.
A packed programme attracts over 30,000 people to more than seventy events throughout North East Scotland. There are concerts, dance shows and galas in major Aberdeen venues such as His Majesty's Theatre
His Majesty's Theatre
His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen is the largest theatre in north-east Scotland, seating more than 1400. The theatre is sited on Rosemount Viaduct, opposite the city's Union Terrace Gardens. It was designed by Frank Matcham and opened in 1906...
, The Music Hall
The Music Hall (Aberdeen)
The Music Hall is a concert hall in Aberdeen, Scotland, formerly the city's Assembly Rooms, located on Union Street in the city centre. It was designed by architect Archibald Simpson, costing £11,500 when it was originally constructed in 1822, opened to the public as a concert hall in 1859, and was...
and The Lemon Tree as well as smaller venues such as churches (such as Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen
Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen
Queen's Cross Church is a congregation of the Church of Scotland. It is located at the intersection of Carden Place and Albyn Place, at Queen's Cross in the heart of Aberdeen's west end business community...
) and also features a touring programme taking events to rural venues.
The AIYF programme includes symphony orchestras and steel bands, song recitals and jazz, traditional music, world music, ballet, contemporary and traditional dance. The festival also produces a critically acclaimed and radical young opera, (Opera Garden) as well as producing unique international performances developed by the participating companies working together over the course of the Festival.
Dates of the Festival
28 July - 7 August 201027 July - 6 August 2011
1-11 August 2012
Interesting facts
The Aberdeen International Youth Festival was formerly known as the International Festival of Youth Orchestras (IFYO) and has grown to attract the world's best youth dance, theatre, choral and music companies to the city every August.The 2011 Festival will be the 39th since IFYO came to Aberdeen in 1973.
AIYF has welcomed over 30,000 performers to Aberdeen since inception.
Notable names to appear at the Festival include
- Claudio AbbadoClaudio AbbadoClaudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...
- Kyung-wha ChungKyung-wha ChungKyung-wha Chung is a Korean violinist.- Biography :Kyung-wha Chung's musical career began at the age of three. Her fame in the seventies and eighties was at the top level, and ranked alongside the great violinists Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman...
- Aaron CoplandAaron CoplandAaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
- Zaira CosicoZaira CosicoZaira Cosico is a ballerina from the Philippines. She is one of a few successful scholars of Liza Macuja's dance company, Ballet Manila. She first learned to dance at the Halili Cruz School of Dance. Cosico has been instructed in the Vaganova method by Tatiana A. Udalenkova of the Academy of Russia...
- Noel EdmondsNoel EdmondsNoel Ernest Edmonds, is an English broadcaster and executive, who made his name as a DJ on BBC Radio 1 in the UK. He has presented many light entertainment television programmes, including Multi-Coloured Swap Shop, Top of the Pops, The Late, Late Breakfast Show, Telly Addicts, Noel's Saturday...
- Rolf HarrisRolf HarrisRolf Harris, CBE, AM is an Australian musician, singer-songwriter, composer, painter and television personality.Born in Perth, Western Australia, Harris was a champion swimmer before studying art. He moved to England in 1952, where he started to appear on television programmes on which he drew the...
- Nigel KennedyNigel KennedyNigel Kennedy is a British born violinist and violist. He made his early career in the classical field, and he has performed and recorded most of the major violin concerti...
- Julian Lloyd WebberJulian Lloyd WebberJulian Lloyd Webber is a British solo cellist who has been described as the "doyen of British cellists".-Early life:Julian Lloyd Webber is the second son of the composer William Lloyd Webber and his wife Jean Johnstone . He is the younger brother of the composer Andrew Lloyd Webber...
- Magnus MagnussonMagnus MagnussonMagnus Magnusson KBE was a television presenter, journalist, translator and writer. He was born in Iceland but lived in Scotland for almost all of his life, although he never took British citizenship...
- Simon RattleSimon RattleSir Simon Denis Rattle, CBE is an English conductor. He rose to international prominence as conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and since 2002 has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic ....
- Daniel Rowland - Soloist and winner of the Festival's Skene Award
- José SerebrierJosé SerebrierJosé Serebrier is a Uruguayan conductor and composer. He married American soprano Carole Farley in 1969.- Youth :Serebrier was born in Montevideo, and first conducted an orchestra at the age of eleven, while at school. The school orchestra toured the country, which meant he was able to notch up...
- Leopold StokowskiLeopold StokowskiLeopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
- The University of the Philippines Concert ChorusThe University of the Philippines Concert ChorusThe University of the Philippines Concert Chorus, also known as the UPCC or Korus, is one of the major cultural groups based in the University of the Philippines-Diliman and one of the earliest choirs in the Philippines....
- Evelyn GlennieEvelyn GlennieDame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, DBE is a Scottish virtuoso percussionist. She was the first full-time solo percussionist in 20th-century western society.-Early life:Glennie was born and raised in Aberdeenshire...
- Cheremosh Ukrainian Dance CompanyCheremosh Ukrainian Dance CompanyCheremosh Ukrainian Dance Company is a Ukrainian dance company based in Edmonton, Alberta and a leader of Ukrainian dance in Canada. It was founded in 1969 by Chester and Luba Kuc and named after the Cheremosh River that separates the historic regions of Bukovyna and Galicia in Ukraine...
Patrons
- The Lord ProvostLord ProvostA Lord Provost is the figurative and ceremonial head of one of the principal cities of Scotland. Four cities, Aberdeen, Dundee, Edinburgh and Glasgow, have the right to appoint a Lord Provost instead of a provost...
of the City of AberdeenAberdeenAberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
Peter J Stephen MCIBSMCIBSMCIBS stands for Member of The Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland. A holder of the MCIBS qualification can also use the Chartered Banker designation. The Chartered Institute of Bankers in Scotland, which is now known as the Chartered Banker Institute, is unique in being entitled to award... - Dame Evelyn GlennieEvelyn GlennieDame Evelyn Elizabeth Ann Glennie, DBE is a Scottish virtuoso percussionist. She was the first full-time solo percussionist in 20th-century western society.-Early life:Glennie was born and raised in Aberdeenshire...
History of the Festival
The Festival was created in the late 1960s by the late Blyth Major, Music Director of the Midland Youth Orchestra and Lionel BryerLionel Bryer
Lionel Bryer was a South African-British youth arts promoter. He was co-founder of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival and the European Union Youth Orchestra.- Biography :...
, later Chairman of the International Youth Foundation. They conceived the idea of bringing together youth orchestras from all over the world at a festival using music as a unifying bond to promote international understanding. The first International Festival of Youth Orchestras was held in 1969 in St Moritz in Switzerland.
Invited by the British Tourist Authority, in 1973 the Festival moved to the UK and established a base both in Aberdeen
Aberdeen
Aberdeen is Scotland's third most populous city, one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas and the United Kingdom's 25th most populous city, with an official population estimate of ....
and London for the following five years. Due to the superb facilities and local support in the City of Aberdeen and its University, the Festival was able to expand to incorporate all forms of dance, jazz and choral music.
Internationally renowned guest conductors such as Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado
Claudio Abbado, Cavaliere di Gran Croce OMRI , is an Italian conductor. He has served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera,...
, Carlo Maria Giulini
Carlo Maria Giulini
Carlo Maria Giulini was an Italian conductor.-Biography:Giulini was born in Barletta, Italy, to a father born in Lombardy and a mother born in Naples; but he was raised in Bolzano, which at the time of his birth was part of Austria...
, Walter Susskind
Walter Susskind
Jan Walter Susskind was a Czech-born British conductor.-Biography:Susskind was born in Prague, Austria–Hungary, now the Czech Republic. His father was a Viennese music critic and his Czech mother was a piano teacher. At the State Conservatorium he studied under composer Josef Suk, the son-in-law...
and Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Stokowski
Leopold Anthony Stokowski was a British-born, naturalised American orchestral conductor, well known for his free-hand performing style that spurned the traditional baton and for obtaining a characteristically sumptuous sound from many of the great orchestras he conducted.In America, Stokowski...
, were invited to conduct the Festival Orchestra - a specially created orchestra, which was invited to appear at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London, and also played at the opening concert of the Edinburgh International Festival in 1978 (the first youth orchestra to appear at The Edinburgh Festival).
Due to the success and support from both the City of Aberdeen, local businesses and growing audiences, in 1979 the management decided to focus this international event entirely in Aberdeen and North East of Scotland. Nicola Wallis, who had been associated with IFYO since 1973, was appointed Director in 1980, with Roy Hendry Thomson
Roy Hendry Thomson
Roy Hendry Thomson KStJ, DL, MA, MLitt was a businessman, public servant and political activist, based in Aberdeen.-Early and personal life:...
as Marketing Director, and the name of the Festival changed to the Aberdeen International Youth Festival. Nicola Wallis ran the Festival until 2003, when she became the Chief Executive of the Voices Foundation. In 2003 the Festival established a full time office base in Aberdeen and a new Chief Executive, Stephen Stenning
Stephen Stenning
Stephen Stenning is Director of Edinburgh Mela. He previously was Senior Producer at UZ Ltd. delivering festivals such as "Big in Falkirk" , "The Merchant City Festival" and working directly with artists and companies...
was appointed in May 2003. Developments during this time include the creation of Grampian Youth Orchestra. In November 2007 Stewart Aitken, formerly Artistic Director of Wigan Pier
Wigan Pier
Wigan Pier is the name given today to the area around the canal at the bottom of the Wigan flight of locks on the Leeds and Liverpool Canal. It is a popular location for visitors and the local community in Wigan, Greater Manchester, England, situated just a few hundred yards south-west of the town...
Theatre Company became the Chief Executive.
Current Festival staff
Chief Executive - Stewart AitkenFestival Manager - Annetta Latham
Communications and Marketing Manager - Angela Michael
Trad Music Project Director - David Francis
David Francis
David Francis may refer to:*David "Panama" Francis, American drummer*David R. Francis, American politician*David Hywel Francis, known as Hywel Francis, Welsh politician*David Francis , former member of the USA Cycling team...
Music Director - Mark Evans
Festival Producer - Judith Stephen
Previous Festival staff
Kenn BurkeKenn Burke
Kenn Burke, a ballet dancer, was born in Fife, Scotland. He completed his training at the Royal Ballet School in England in 1975. He subsequently returned to Scotland where he performed for the Scottish Ballet in leading roles in Elliot Goldenthal's Othello, Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet, and Carl...
(Dance Director, 1996 - 2007)
Jeroen Mourik (Assistant Producer), founder of http://www.festivalorganiser.com
Jennifer Phillips (General Manager), now General Manager at Citymoves Dance Agency
Michael Richardson (Producer, 1998 - 2007), Chief Executive/Artistic Director of Firefly Arts / freelance director
Stephen Stenning
Stephen Stenning
Stephen Stenning is Director of Edinburgh Mela. He previously was Senior Producer at UZ Ltd. delivering festivals such as "Big in Falkirk" , "The Merchant City Festival" and working directly with artists and companies...
(Chief Executive 2003 - 2007), now Chief Executive of The Voices Foundation
Roy Hendry Thomson
Roy Hendry Thomson
Roy Hendry Thomson KStJ, DL, MA, MLitt was a businessman, public servant and political activist, based in Aberdeen.-Early and personal life:...
(Marketing Director, 1980 - 2005)
Ben Torrie (Box Office Manager), now Artistic Director of The Lemon Tree, Aberdeen Performing Arts
Aberdeen Performing Arts
Aberdeen Performing Arts is a company set up in 2005 to manage the running of His Majesty's Theatre, The Music Hall and Aberdeen Box office in Aberdeen, Scotland. The buildings are still owned by Aberdeen City Council. Since 2008, they now also manage The Lemon Tree after its brief closure....
Nicola Wallis (Director 1980 - 2003), now Chief Executive of The Voices Foundation
Opera Garden
Opera Garden is the Aberdeen International Youth Festival's Opera Project. Named after the world famous Aberdonian opera singer, Mary GardenMary Garden
Mary Garden , was a Scottish operatic soprano with a substantial career in France and America in the first third of the 20th century...
, the project aspires to continue her work, providing new challenges and performances for young singers.
Conceived by Artistic Director Gidon Saks
Gidon Saks
Gidon Saks is an Israeli born South African bass-baritone.-Education:Saks grew up in South Africa. His father was a first generation South African of Lithuanian descent. His mother was Scottish of Ukrainian extraction. He had an aunt who was an accomplished opera singer in South Africa but he had...
, the project brings together young singers from across the world and in three weeks they produce a dazzling full scale opera production. Since 2000, Opera Garden has staged Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte
Così fan tutte, ossia La scuola degli amanti K. 588, is an opera buffa by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first performed in 1790. The libretto was written by Lorenzo Da Ponte....
, Eugene Onegin
Eugene Onegin (opera)
Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, is an opera in 3 acts , by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The libretto was written by Konstantin Shilovsky and the composer and his brother Modest, and is based on the novel in verse by Alexander Pushkin....
, Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni
Don Giovanni is an opera in two acts with music by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and with an Italian libretto by Lorenzo Da Ponte. It was premiered by the Prague Italian opera at the Teatro di Praga on October 29, 1787...
, Carmen
Carmen
Carmen is a French opéra comique by Georges Bizet. The libretto is by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée, first published in 1845, itself possibly influenced by the narrative poem The Gypsies by Alexander Pushkin...
, The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute is an opera in two acts composed in 1791 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a Singspiel, a popular form that included both singing and spoken dialogue....
, Falstaff
Falstaff (opera)
Falstaff is an operatic commedia lirica in three acts by Giuseppe Verdi, adapted by Arrigo Boito from Shakespeare's plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and scenes from Henry IV. It was Verdi's last opera, written in the composer's ninth decade, and only the second of his 26 operas to be a comedy...
, The Turn of the Screw
The Turn of the Screw (opera)
The Turn of the Screw is a 20th century English chamber opera composed by Benjamin Britten with a libretto by Myfanwy Piper, "wife of the artist John Piper, who had been a friend of the composer since 1935 and had provided designs for several of the operas". The libretto is based on the novella...
and Hansel and Gretel to critical acclaim. The Opera has been sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell
Royal Dutch Shell plc , commonly known as Shell, is a global oil and gas company headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands and with its registered office in London, United Kingdom. It is the fifth-largest company in the world according to a composite measure by Forbes magazine and one of the six...
and Robert Gordon University
Robert Gordon University
Robert Gordon University is located in Aberdeen, Scotland. Building on over 250 years involvement in education, it was granted university status in 1992. Robert Gordon University currently has approximately 16,407 students at its two campuses at Garthdee and the City Centre, studying on over 145...
since inception.
"Brilliantly directed… visually stunning…absolutely thrilling… Once again the youth festival pulls off a major operatic triumph that should not be missed."
The Magic Flute, Festival 2004
AIYF Dance School
The Festival's Dance Summer School has been running for 25 years. The Dance Summer School was introduced over 20 years ago and has welcomed outstanding teachers from major schools and companies worldwide including the Paris Opera Ballet School and the KirovKirov
-People:*Nikolay Kirov , Soviet track and field athlete*Sergey Kirov , Bolshevik revolutionary and a Soviet communist-Things named after Sergey Kirov:*Kirov Plant, St. Petersburg, Russia...
and Bolshoi
Bolshoi
Bolshoi may refer to:*Bolshoi Theatre, a major ballet and opera theatre in Moscow, Russia**Bolshoi Ballet, resident ballet company at the Bolshoi Theatre**Moscow State Academy of Choreography, commonly known as The Bolshoi Ballet Academy...
companies. To this day the School remains an important and unique course in Scotland.
The Dance Summer School was held annually as part of the Aberdeen International Youth Festival. The school offers an intensive course in dance for students aged 12-16, a performance course for advanced level students in full time training for a career in dance, a music theatre course and a 'taster day' for younger dance students.
in 2009 AIYF Dance Lab was created as a new development for the AIYF Dance Summer School. Dance Lab is an opportunity to explore dance styles in depth with guest masterclass tutors from Scotland and abroad. Each masterclass ran over two or three days and encouraged participants to extend their dance vocabulary and techniques.
Dance Lab has a strong emphasis on how the dancer creatively develops their own dance while keeping a strong technical reference point. Each day the dancers have warm up classes concentrating on technical aspects of dance and then these are developed by the different masterclass tutors through creative, improvisational and choreographic challenges. As well as classical ballet the masterclasses explore contemporary styles of dance through body contact, improvisation, contemporary jazz and hip hop.