Kiri

Heidi Purga Minister of Culture of the Republic of Estonia Suur-Karja Street 23 15076 Tallinn, Estonia Grafenegg, 23 March 2025 Dear Minister Purga, With the physical copy of this letter, it is my pleasure to send you the 2024 Yearbook of the European Union Youth Orchestra; an online version is also available, at https://bit.ly/euyo-2024-yearbook. I do hope you will enjoy this retrospective of a very busy and fruitful year past. We are Europe’s most vibrant musical family, inspiring current and future generations to achieve peace and understanding through music. We continually strive to create maximum opportunity for young musicians and value for audiences and communities throughout Europe, at regional, national, and international level. Our work is made possible through the commitment and support from all 27 EU Member States, and I would like to thank you and the Ministry of Culture for your indispensable contribution. 2025 Activities I would also like to take this opportunity to update you about our activities in 2025. I will need to be selective in order that this letter not take up too much of your valuable time. I will do my best therefore to synthesise some key, if non-exhaustive, activities in 2025. Between April 1-10 we will embark on our Spring Tour of Poland, as part of the cultural programme of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU. Entitled Inspiring the Future, it is a major collaborative project with Poland’s best youth music ensembles to celebrate young creative talent in Poland and throughout Europe. Directly after we return from Poland, five EUYO alumni will travel to Bolzano to work with local music school pupils as part of the launch of Music Hub Italy; a model-sharing programme piloted and led by our extensive Music Hub Austria activities, planned from our home in Grafenegg. We are usually busy on Europe Day, but May 2025 perhaps sets an EUYO record in that we will be performing simultaneously at three major events. We are greatly honoured to be participating in Remembering for the Future in Sankt Pölten; other EUYO musicians will be in Moldova on the invitation of the EU Delegation and the Romanian Cultural Institute, and at Expo 2025 Osaka appearing at the EU, Austrian, Polish, and Italian Pavilions. In June, we continue our work as cultural ambassadors for the European Union at Europa-Forum Wachau. Meanwhile, EUYO alumni will be teaching in Malaysia and Mexico as part of our work diffusing European excellence in classical music ex-EU. Our Summer Tour 2025, the biggest project of our season, sees us enjoy a full three-week residency in our home at Grafenegg, Austria. The exceptional facilities of Grafenegg’s outstanding cultural campus enable us to hold a wealth of rehearsals, chamber music coaching, MusicLabs widening the upskilling opportunities we offer, a community day in Vienna celebrating Schönberg and Berio in partnership with the Arnold Schönberg Center, our popular side-by-side project with the Lower Austrian Music Schools Management, a renewed sponsorship collaboration with Thomastik-Infeld for our string players, formal portraiture for every Orchestra member kindly offered by Viennese photographer Sebastian Herndlhofer, and more. Following our tour launch concert on 2 August at Grafenegg’s Sommerklänge, we will be on the road visiting Berlin, Bolzano, returning to the Grafenegg Festival, and concluding with a mini-residency in collaboration with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, including strong emphasis on community work. Autumn 2025 includes participation in Suoni delle Dolomiti, a music festival in the unusual and spectacular setting of the Dolomite mountains; a return to the European Cultural Heritage Summit, Brussels; our live auditions in all 27 EU Member States; our annual online Model Sharing Symposium, and the continuation of our Frontrunners online learning and our Café Bauhaus creative entrepreneurship projects. Where the Road Leads - The Impact of Your Support Music is about music, and more. It is a road, a guide, and companion. Throughout 2024, your generosity has enabled our mission to empower Europe’s most talented young musicians, individually and together. EUYO musicians are the best of the best; only 3% of applicants win a place. No concert last year was complete without a standing ovation, the audience transported by the skill, commitment, intensity, and beauty of what they heard. The press reported that "there’s really only one acceptable opinion to be held about the European Union Youth Orchestra; namely, that they’re brilliant" (ArtsDesk), and described us as "a magnificent ensemble that is worth every effort and every penny" (Klassik Begeistert); "convincing artistically, and also on a human level" (Luzerner Zeitung), "bringing the audience viscerally to its feet" (ConcertoNet), and "astonishing…with nothing to fear from the most renowned international ensembles" (Giornale della Musica). In every performance, the message is clear: we stand for the cooperation, creativity, diversity, and achievement that define enlightened Europeans. We would be enormously grateful for the maintenance of your annual grant, at least at the same level as last year at €6.500,00. The annual grant supports the travel, accommodation, subsistence, teaching, performance, education, and online expenses of your country’s young musicians in the EUYO, including alumni. The transfer of your grant by 1 May 2025 would contribute invaluably to touring costs, which we often need to settle in advance of the performances. Once again, on behalf of the Orchestra, our thanks to you for your invaluable support. With kind regards and best wishes, Marshall Marcus Executive & Artistic Director Saatja: Riitta Hirvonen <[email protected]> Saaja: KUM min Teema: FW: EUYO Yearbook & 2025 Support Request Dear Ms. Purga, I hope this message finds you well. I am writing regarding our 2024 Yearbook and our forthcoming 2025 activities, which we have already sent you as a physical copy with accompanying letter from our Executive & Artistic Director, Mr. Marshall Marcus. For your convenience, attached is a digital version of the letter, as well as a link <https://bit.ly/euyo-2024-yearbook> to our Yearbook, which highlights the vital role that support from the Ministry of Culture plays in furthering the EUYO’s mission to nurture Europe’s most gifted young musicians, representing every EU Member State. Your continued support is invaluable to us to carry on our work, and I therefore include our grant request for 2025, which we hope to reach us this year before the start of our Summer Tour. On another topic, on 2 December 2024 my colleague Helen Leitner sent an invitation from Mr Marcus to Minister Purga to join our Honorary Committee - a purely honorary position with no further demands on her valuable time. This invitation was sent to [email protected] <mailto:[email protected]> ; I attach it here again for convenience. Would it be possible to let me know with whom Helen could follow this up? We would be delighted and honoured if Minister Purga could join the other EU Ministers of Culture, Youth, and Education in our Honorary Committee. I sincerely appreciate your time and look forward to the possibility of working more closely together in the future. Yours sincerely, Riitta Hirvonen _________________________________________________________________________ “Among the élite institutions of its kind” The New York Times “The most talented musicians of Europe” Il Giorno “they dazzled us … unleashing almost unbearable passions” UK Guardian Riitta Hirvonen, Head of Executive and Finance European Union Youth Orchestra Grafenegg 10, 3485 Grafenegg, Austria - Tel +44 (0) 7747 115880 Founding Music Director Claudio Abbado | Music Director Iván Fischer Honorary President Roberta Metsola | Head of Honorary Patrons Ursula von der Leyen EUYO website <http://www.euyo.eu/> ● EUYOtweets <https://twitter.com/EUYOtweets> ● EUYOvideo <http://www.youtube.com/user/EUYOvideo> ● EUYOfacebook <https://www.facebook.com/TheEUYO/> ● EUYOinstagram <https://www.instagram.com/euyo.eu/> European Union Youth Orchestra Foundation (Italy) INVOICE Codice fiscale: 97967700580 Ministry of Culture Suur-Karja Street 23 15076 Tallinn, Estonia Invoice No: IC 04 / 2025 Tax Date: 04/04/2025 Description Net VAT Total Contribution towards travel and accommodation of the Estonian musicians of the European Union € 6,500 n/a € 6,500 Youth Orchestra in 2025 Total: € 6,500 Payable to: Bank: Credit Agricole Cariparma Account name: European Union Youth Orchestra Foundation IBAN: IT30 H062 3013 0100 0003 0134 915 SWIFT/BIC: CRPPIT2P907 Heidy Purga Minister of Culture of the Republic of Estonia [email protected] Grafenegg, 1 December 2024 Dear Minister Purga, Invitation to the Honorary Committee of the European Union Youth Orchestra I am delighted to write to invite you to become a member of the Honorary Committee of the European Union Youth Orchestra (EUYO). The EUYO has been described by former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker as “the best possible ambassador for the European Union”. Like the motto of the European Union, we are United in Diversity: approximately 3500 young musicians from every EU Member State compete for around 100 places annually. Founded on a unanimous vote of the European Parliament in 1976, we have embodied the values of the European Union for nearly half a century. An orchestra is the ultimate harmonious group, listening to and working with each other. We stand for the cooperation, creativity, innovation, and achievement that define enlightened Europeans. You can form a more detailed picture of our recent activity in our 2023 Yearbook, the 2024 brochure of our Spring Tour of Belgium with welcome greetings from President Metsola and Minister-President Jan Jambon, and our 2024 Summer Tour brochure. We are very keen to build our presence among young Estonian musicians and make sure they are aware of the opportunities we offer, and we would be deeply honoured if you were to join all the other EU Ministers of Education and Youth, Minsters of Foreign Affairs, and Ministers of Culture as a member of the Honorary Committee of the Orchestra. May I stress that as the position is an honorary one, we would not request you to attend meetings or otherwise take up your valuable time. We would simply list your position on our Honorary Committee on our website and in our printed literature. Yours sincerely, Marshall Marcus Executive & Artistic Director EUROPEAN UNION YOUTH ORCHESTRA Honorary President Roberta Metsola, President of the European Parliament | Co-Founders Lionel & Joy Bryer Founding Music Director Claudio Abbado | Music Director Iván Fischer | Conductor Laureate Bernard Haitink Chair Ewa Bogusz-Moore | Advisory Council Founding Chair Sir Ian Stoutzker CBE | Executive & Artistic Director Marshall Marcus Head of Honorary Patrons Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission Postal address: Grafenegg 10, 3485 Grafenegg, Austria - [email protected]