Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée

For more than 40 years, the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée (OJM) has been creating large orchestras to support the development of the most talented young artists in the Mediterranean basin. The OJM is historically committed to intercultural dialogue and the rapprochement of cultures in the Mediterranean, a contribution to peace that is more necessary than ever. It relies on a cooperation network that shares its values and facilitates the recruitment and mobility of artists in the Mediterranean.

The cultural diversity of the Mediterranean shapes the OJM, which defies the conventional limits of the orchestra, combining Mediterranean cultural heritages, collective compositions, improvisations, orality and memory, and symphonic writing.

To date, the OJM is the only musical force whose artistic excellence influences and federates so many countries bordering the Mediterranean, around a common project and through the dialogue it stimulates.

In order to provide the best possible support for over a hundred young artists each year as they embark on their professional careers, OJM develops advanced training in orchestras and ensembles, in composition sessions, offers performance opportunities, and fosters exceptional artistic collaborations at the heart of the Festival d'Aix.

Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée - Teaser

EURO-MEDITERRANEAN COOPERATION

Through musical exchange, dialogue, circulation and collaboration, the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée (OJM) has placed Euro-Mediterranean cooperation and partnerships at the heart of its activities. Over the past 40 years, the OJM’s initiatives have brought together musical institutions from all of the countries around the Mediterranean; these structures consist mainly of institutes of higher education, cultural centres and festivals that initially served as annual audition locations for the OJM throughout the region.

OJM — Collective composition session at Cassis (France) and online
2020 Festival d'Aix-en-Provence © Vincent Beaume

HISTORY

This year, the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée celebrates its 40th anniversary and the 10th year of its integration into the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. Since its creation in 1984, through the initiative of the Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur region, the OJM strived to embody the principles of cooperation and intercultural dialogue in the Mediterranean, via symphonic orchestral practice by young artists from the Mediterranean Basin.

Discover OJM’s history

SESSIONS

SYMPHONIC SESSION

An exceptional symphony orchestra made up of some 90 young artists from all shores of the Mediterranean brought together in Aix, following their selection at auditions held in various Mediterranean cities, with the mentorship of the London Symphony Orchestra.

AU GRAND AIR SESSION

Led by actress and singer Violaine Fournier, with the collaboration of choreographer Ana Eulate, this session invites young artists from diverse musical backgrounds (classical music, jazz, traditional music of the Mediterranean, etc.) to compose this musical narrative specifically for the project, in dialogue with an exceptional natural site: the Bibémus quarries.

COLLECTIVE COMPOSITION SESSION

A unique blend of diverse musical aesthetics, woven together by young heirs of centuries-old Mediterranean traditions and of jazz music, with the mentorship of Fabrizio Cassol, from which new repertoires emerge, composed collectively, with an emphasis on orality and memory over notation.