Tour to Antwerp and Ghent (September 2024)
15-20 September 2024
COE & Belgium
We are thrilled to have been invited back to Belgium, this time to open the new season at deSingel in Antwerp on 18th September and as part of the Flanders Festival Ghent on 19th September. For these two concerts, we will be joined by two artists making their debut with the COE: conductor Valentin Uryupin and Salzburg-born cellist Julia Hagen who is at the beginning of a global career. Together, they will perform Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 1 ‘Classical’, Schumann’s Cello Concerto and Shostakovich’s Chamber Symphony No. 1 (arr. Barshai).
The Chamber Orchestra of Europe has a long history of performances in Belgium, not only in the context of the EU Cultural Ambassadors Programme which the COE was part of from 2007 to 2013, but all the way back to 1986 when the 5-year old Orchestra gave its first concert at Bozar in Brussels with Claudio Abbado and Viktoria Mullova. We were regular performers at Bozar for many years and also took part in the Klara Festival in March 2019 with three different programmes themed around Faust, performed in the Festival’s three venues: deSingel in Antwerp, the Concertgebouw in Brugge and Bozar in Brussels. During the period when the COE was EU Cultural Ambassador, the Orchestra also performed in Brussels in the context of specific European events such as the European Culture Forum in 2011 at Flagey.
A particularly vivid memory in our musicians’ minds is that of the chaos caused by the Icelandic volcano’s ash cloud back in April 2010. We had just finished a tour with Sakari Oramo and Lisa Batiashvili with one last concert at Bozar and found ourselves stranded in Brussels while the COE’s Tour Manager was frantically trying to find ways for our musicians to get back to their homes, since all flights had been cancelled. One of the boldest strategy was used by a group of Scandinavian musicians who embarked on a rather run-down coach (read: broken windscreen and sofas instead of regular seats…) to drive all the way back to Stockholm. Here is a video of their crossing of the Öresundsbro bridge from Denmark to Sweden, captured by bass trombone Nick Eastop at the time: https://youtu.be/XW1F3NMmVas?feature=shared
We were lucky to be able to perform just before the first COVID-19 lockdown happened, not just once, but twice, in February 2020: at Bozar with Dénes Varjon, Izabella Simon and Lorenza Borrani; and at deSingel with Matthias Pintscher and Emanuel Ax. Our most recent concert dates back to December 2022, at the Elisabethzaal in Antwerp with Sir Antonio Pappano and Janine Jansen.
Valentin Uryupin
“Tchaikovsky has never been more modern, and conductor Valentin Uryupin lives this out consistently and rather stunningly.” Süddeutsche Zeitung
Valentin Uryupin feels equally at home as a conductor in the symphonic and operatic repertoire. In both areas, he has built up close artistic partnerships with orchestras and houses in recent years. In addition to debuts, he has several invitations to return to the ORF Radio Symphony Orchestra Vienna, Frankfurt Opera, Teatro Regio Torino, Slovenian Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsche Radiophilharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, and the New National Theatre Tokyo, where he will conduct Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin. He makes his first guest appearance, also with Eugene Onegin, at the Hanover State Opera as well as with Carmen at the Berlin State Opera and with Verdi’s Nabucco at the Nuremberg Theatre; he also makes his debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra.
Julia Hagen
Naturalness and warmth, vitality, and the courage to take risks: These qualities are often used to describe Julia Hagen’s playing. The young cellist from Salzburg is just as convincing as a soloist with orchestra as she is in recital or in numerous chamber music constellations alongside prominent partners. The 29-year-old, who now lives in Vienna, combines technical mastery with high artistic standards and a direct, communicative approach to musicmaking.
Julia Hagen is the winner of the “UBS Young Artist Award” 2024, which includes a concert with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Christian Thielemann at the Lucerne Festival.
Highlights of the 2024/25 season include concerts with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of the Bayerischer Rundfunk, and the Orquestra Simfònica de Barcelona. Of particular note is her US debut with the Cleveland Orchestra under Franz Welser-Möst. In Dortmund, Julia Hagen is one of the “Junge Wilden”, young up-and-coming soloists who demonstrate their versatility over three seasons – as a soloist, chamber musician and with orchestra.