This year’s activities of the European project Sounds of Change and the International Orchestral Academy were held in Novi Sad, Serbia, as part of the European Capital of Culture Novi Sad 2022. The Opera House was the venue for all the preparations of the programme, with workshops and rehearsals of the individual orchestral groups under the guidance of renowned international mentors, as well as the joint rehearsals of the orchestra. The Orchestral Academy ended with a symphonic concert performed in public. The musicians have been intensively working, refining and learning how to create a collective symphonic sound, and have been introduced to different approaches to working and creating sonic details, providing the participants with a better insight into the issues and professional growth.

89 participants from the five partner countries (Portugal, Spain, Germany, Slovenia and Serbia) were involved by direct invitation of the partners, and from Ukraine by invitation of musicians who were visiting Slovenia due to the situation in their home country.

The artistic and educational programme for 2022 was based on Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No.5, which was written during a happy period in the composer’s life when he was already critically acclaimed as conductor, artistic director and director of the Vienna Court Opera. In the same year, far from the public eye, he married the Viennese femme fatale Alma Schindler, and as a wedding gift he dedicated the lyrically subtle Adagietto of the symphony to her.

The performance was conducted by the Portuguese conductor Osvaldo Ferreira.