European Youth Orchestra to move to Italy after Brexit

(ANSA) - Rome, October 10 - The European Youth Orchestra is to move to Italy from its London home post-Brexit, Culture Minister Dario Franceschini announced Tuesday.
    The EUYO will be legally headquartered at RAI State broadcaster offices in Rome and will operate out of Ferrara's Abbado Theatre, named after the orchestra's founder Claudio Abbado, he said.
    The orchestra has been based in London since its foundation in 1976.
    Directed today by Vassily Petrenko, it is composed of 160 musicians from the 28 countries of the European Union. In its 40 years of activity the EUYO has trained more than 3,000 pupils and worked with the greatest international musicians including Rostropovich, Bernstein, Barenboim and von Karajan, performing in over 400 theatres on four continents.
    Among its directors have been Abbado and Vladimir Ashkenazy. RAI is the only one of Europe's State broadcasters to support it.
    Franceschini thanked all those who helped bring the orchestra to Italy including Culture Undersecretary Ilaria Borletti Buitoni, who personally oversaw talks, European Parliament Culture Committee member Silvia Costa who made the bid to the EU, Ferrara Mayor Tiziano Tagliani and RAI, which he said had "laid the foundations for a fruitful collaboration with the EUYO".
    Costa said the move sent "a strong and coherent message on the value and the role that culture, music and young artists represent in Europe, also in view of the European Year of Cultural Heritage in 2018.
    Abbado, who died aged 80 in 2014, was one of the most celebrated and respected conductors of the 20th century, particularly in the music of Gustav Mahler. He served as music director of the La Scala opera house in Milan, principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Vienna State Opera, founder and director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, and principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic orchestra - as well as being music director of the EUYO. photo: Abbado in 2007