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Sonic Alchemy
The Mystifiers is an organisation which connects people from a variety of backgrounds through music. For the first time they joined forces with the young musicans of the Academy of the Concertgebouw Orchestra: an exciting collaboration, concluded with a joint performance.
'Before we started the project, I was nervous - improvisation isn't something we do much in our classical education. I thought: I can't do that. But now, I'd even dare to play something spontaneously in a café if someone asked me to!'
- Florianne Remme, academist
Under the moniker Sonic Alchemy, the Academy of the Concertgebouw Orchestra and The Mystifiers engaged in an exciting four-day musical and social collaboration, culminating in a performance on 11 April.
At the Academy of the Concertgebouw Orchestra, talented young musicians are trained as orchestra musicians over the course of a concert season. Part of the programme is a social project in which the Academy participants learn to share their knowledge and skills with others.
This is the framework of the Academy’s first collaboration with The Mystifiers, an Amsterdam organisation (in partnership with HVO Querido) that uses music to bring together people from different backgrounds. At Sonic Alchemy, the Academy members played music with musicians from The Mystifiers for four days, leading to a performance in the Q-Factory.
Both collectives are moving outside of their usual context and sound. While the Academy musicians of the Concertgebouw Orchestra excel in the classical genre and playing from sheet music, The Mystifiers work with a mix of genres and allow plenty of room for improvisation.
By experimenting within this combination, the young musicians challenged themselves and each other, and created a space in which musicality and social involvement worked together. The existing repertoire of different genres and improvisation blended into each other. Sonic Alchemy was a unique musical and educational experience as well as a celebration of diversity and creative freedom.
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The collaboration is made possible by the Frances Fonds, one of the commemorative funds of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.