Orchestral internships of the SON Foundation
In 2023, 25 young musicians were able to benefit from orchestral internships, an indispensable part of their training as future professional musicians.
Since 1997, the Sinfonie Orchester Biel Solothurn has organized two types of orchestral internships for young musicians in collaboration with the SON Foundation: One lasts the entire concert and opera season, the other, denser, focuses on one month in the middle of the summer. In 2023, no fewer than 260 candidates applied online. Following an initial selection, 188 of them were invited to audition (between 5 and 15 per register, but 24 for the violins). In the end, 25 were selected, 3 for the season, 6 for the summer and 16 others for both internships.
The summer internship successfully took place from August 3 to September 3 and enabled the young instrumentalists to immerse themselves in the concrete life of an orchestra, in which numerous rehearsals and concerts follow one another, in different locations with often completely different acoustics. Under the direction of Yannis Pouspourikas, the new principal conductor of the Biel Solothurn Symphony Orchestra since the 2022/23 season, they were able to take part in a concert of symphonic jazz (including works by Bernstein, Gershwin and Joplin) as part of the Lakelive Festival in Biel. There were also two concerts with a potpourri of orchestral excerpts from operettas of various origins, from Sullivan's Savoy opera to Chapí's or Giménez's Zarzuela, Offenbach and Johann Strauss Sohn. In addition to a crossover project, which was performed in Biel and Solothurn, and a barbecue concert, a program of works for winds only is worth mentioning, which includes excerpts from the wind arrangement of Mozart's Abduction from the Seragliowhich Sinfonietta from Raff and the Petite Symphony by Gounod. Participation in the Gstaad Conducting Academy, which took place as part of the Gstaad Menuhin Festival, was also particularly interesting. On this occasion, the musicians were led by various young conductors and were able to study their different working methods in rehearsals and later perform with them in Courtelary and Gstaad. All of these were valuable and invaluable experiences from which the participants were able to benefit. It is worth mentioning the importance of the mentoring provided by the orchestra members, which has a lasting educational value.
