When the final applause erupts in the hall, when the audience – as is so often the case at the Young Euro Classic Festival – is completely over the moon, Friederike Pachowiak can lean back and relax: done! Another concert brought to the stage without a hitch. Hopefully, the 40-year-old with the blond curly hair will be able to experience this beautiful feeling night after night until August 21st – because 17 different ensembles are performing one after the other at the international youth orchestra meeting in the Konzerthaus am Gendarmenmarkt, with a total of 1200 participants.
Friedrike Pahowiak is the project manager of Young Euro Classic. All organizational threads come together with her. Festival founder Gabriele Minz and her artistic director Dieter Rexroth are responsible for the large arc at the privately organized festival, which was founded in 2000 by a few friends as a cultural citizens’ initiative.
When it comes to the concrete implementation of the plans in the summer, the coordination of marketing and ticketing, orchestra management and venue support, Frederike Pachowiak is in demand. Ensuring a good atmosphere, keeping a cool head in stressful situations, strengthening the team spirit, all of which – along with organizational talent and management skills – are part of their job. who she loves
She has been associated with Young Euro Classic for half her life. As a student in the subject “International Business Administration” she looked for an internship with the initiative, immediately felt at home in the close-knit team around the management consultant Gabriele Minz, and became a freelancer. In 2007 she got a permanent job, she organized projects such as the orchestra academies, where young talents from two different countries meet to make music together, before she became Young Euro Classic project manager in 2015.
During the year, the organizational team consists of eight people, and by August the number of employees has grown to over 20. Each individual evening has to be planned individually – because not only is every program different, but so is every youth orchestra. Some are managed super professionally, like the National Youth Orchestra of the USA, which arrives with a whole entourage of supervisors.
Others live from the initiative of individuals, such as the Jovem Orquestra Portuguesa, which the conductor Pedro Carneiro takes care of together with his wife and two helpers. That’s where Frederike Pachowiak and her people lend a hand when it comes to distributing the notes to the correct desks of the instrument groups for the concert
Some ensembles only make a brief stop in Berlin, others treat themselves to an additional day of sightseeing in the capital on their tours, some are very tight on money, others have been able to collect funding from sponsors and government agencies at home. With Young Euro Classic, they can deal with all constellations from many years of experience, they book the hotels accordingly, organize buses for transport from the accommodation to the concert hall, rent those special instruments from Berlin institutions that the orchestra does not have with them.
This mostly affects the area of percussion, from the gong to drums and kettledrums to the wind machine. This time it was also necessary to find a cymbalon, a hammered hammered dulcimer. Ensembles that come to Berlin by plane often do not take the bulky double basses with them, so they have to be hired on site
Because the performances at Young Euro Classic are so tightly scheduled, the conductors and their protégés have little time to adjust to the acoustics of the concert hall. The hall is free from 3 p.m., then the chairs and music stands first have to be set up, according to the specific requirements of the works, the size of the cast and the way the instrument groups are to be distributed on the podium – depending on tradition, the 1st and 2. Violins either opposite each other or right next to each other.
After all, they have been looking forward to the summer work phase of their orchestra for months. And the stop at the magnificent classical concert hall is always a highlight of the tour. Also thanks to the extremely enthusiastic Young Euro Classic regular audience.
In “meetings that lasted all night” they worked out the schedule for this year’s festival in Gabriele Minz’s office in Wilmersdorf’s Meierottostraße, and determined exactly who is responsible for whom and when, where and what. When things get going now, the only thing left to do is keep your fingers crossed that no one in the management team or in the orchestras is absent due to illness.
There are no contingency plans prepared in advance. If Corona strikes and, for example, takes a solo oboist or a first trumpeter out of play a few hours before the performance, the organizers have to trust their network. The knowledge gathered over many years is maintained and prepared in such a way that anyone can access it immediately if the worst comes to the worst.
But no real drama has happened in the 22 years of the Young Euro Classic, says Friederike Pachowiak. Sure, last year four orchestras had to cancel their participation at short notice because there were outbreaks of a pandemic or travel restrictions were not lifted in time. However, a replacement could be found in the Berlin classical music scene. And otherwise? Once, Friederike Pachowiak recalls, a clarinet had to be delivered from Spain by courier within 24 hours. Another time, a player’s glasses broke: “Then everyone on the team brought their glasses from home in the hope that one would have the right strength.” And then there was the drummer who played in Ravel’s ” Bolero” suddenly went limp. But another percussionist from the orchestra was sitting in the hall and was able to step in spontaneously. So may luck be with the capable youngsters from Young Euro Classic again in 2022!
