Aberdeen International Youth Festival

Native Australian performers at the festival

Aberdeen International Youth Festival is a Festival of Youth Arts, and one of Scotland's major international cultural events.

Every year Aberdeen International Youth Festival attracts over 1000 young people in performing arts companies and music groups from across the globe. It provides a showcase for their talents, bringing them together with professionals and artists.

As well as the ticketed events the Festival stages a parade, open-air performances and a fringe programme in community venues.

A programme attracts over 30,000 people to more than seventy events throughout north east Scotland. There are concerts, dance shows and galas in Aberdeen venues such as His Majesty's Theatre, The Music Hall and The Lemon Tree as well as smaller venues such as churches (such as Queen's Cross Church, Aberdeen) 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 young opera, (Opera Garden) as well as producing performances developed by the participating companies working together over the course of the Festival.

Information

History

The festival was created in the late 1960s by the late Blyth Major, Music Director of the Midland Youth Orchestra and Lionel Bryer, 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 and London for the following five years. Due to the facilities and 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, Carlo Maria Giulini, Walter Susskind and Leopold 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 focussed the event entirely in Aberdeen and the north east of Scotland. Nicola Wallis, who had been associated with IFYO since 1973, was appointed Director in 1980, with Roy Hendry Thomson 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 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 Theatre Company became the Chief Executive.

Opera Garden

Opera Garden is the Aberdeen International Youth Festival's Opera Project. Named after the Aberdonian opera singer, Mary Garden, the project aspires to continue her work, providing new challenges and performances for young singers.

Conceived by Artistic Director Gidon Saks, the project brings together young singers from across the world and in three weeks they produce a full-scale opera production. Since 2000, Opera Garden has staged Così fan tutte, Eugene Onegin, Don Giovanni, Carmen, The Magic Flute, Falstaff, The Turn of the Screw and Hansel and Gretel. The opera has been sponsored by Royal Dutch Shell and The Robert Gordon University since inception.

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 teachers from major schools and companies worldwide including the Paris Opera Ballet School and the Kirov and Bolshoi companies.

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. Each masterclass ran over two or three days and encouraged participants to extend their dance vocabulary and techniques.

Some notable people that have appeared at the festival

Patrons

External links

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