Orchestre des jeunes de la Méditerranée
Within the Academy of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence, the Mediterranean Youth Orchestra (Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée, or OJM) offers talented young musicians from the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region and the Mediterranean the opportunity to play professionally as an orchestra. For the past thirty years, the OJM has made creation and intercultural exchange the heart of its programmes, and focused on the transmission of the pleasure of performing the symphonic repertoire. Every year, about a hundred Mediterranean youths (from about twenty different countries) take part in the OJM sessions, benefitting from high-level training as well as from the presence of prestigious artists-in-residence at the Festival d'Aix. In 2015, the OJM offers three different sessions: one focusing on symphonic practice, conducted by Carlo Rizzi with the help of musicians from the London Symphony Orchestra; another dedicated to intercultural collective composition, with Fabrizio Cassol; and a session of professional integration with the musicians of the London Symphony Orchestra, with the creation of an opera for children conducted by Sir Simon Rattle.
