The Geneva Camerata (GECA), is an

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * String instruments, such as the violin, viola, cello, ...

composed of forty international musicians of the young generation. Based in

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, it performs music of all periods and styles, from early

baroque music Baroque music ( or ) refers to the period or dominant style of Classical music, Western classical music composed from about 1600 to 1750. The Baroque style followed the Renaissance music, Renaissance period, and was followed in turn by the Class ...

contemporary music Contemporary music is whatever music is produced at the current time. Specifically, it could refer to: Genres or audiences * Adult contemporary music * British contemporary R&B * Christian adult contemporary * Christian contemporary hit radio * Con ...

, as well as

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

rock Rock most often refers to: * Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids * Rock music, a genre of popular music Rock or Rocks may also refer to: Places United Kingdom * Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...

world music "World music" is an English phrase for styles of music from non-English speaking countries, including quasi-traditional, Cross-cultural communication, intercultural, and traditional music. World music's broad nature and elasticity as a musical ...

electronic music Electronic music broadly is a group of music genres that employ electronic musical instruments, circuitry-based music technology and software, or general-purpose electronics (such as personal computers) in its creation. It includes both music ...

, in addition to creating a variety of multidisciplinary projects involving

dance Dance is an The arts, art form, consisting of sequences of body movements with aesthetic and often Symbol, symbolic value, either improvised or purposefully selected. Dance can be categorized and described by its choreography, by its repertoir ...

theatre Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors to present experiences of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a Stage (theatre), stage. The performe ...

, and

visual arts The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics (art), ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual a ...

. The

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

and

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

of the Geneva Camerata is conductor and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

David Greilsammer. The orchestra was founded in 2013 by Céline Meyer and David Greilsammer, and since then the group has performed at festivals and venues such as the

Berliner Philharmonie The () is a concert hall in Berlin, Germany, and home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonie lies on the south edge of the city's Tiergarten and just west of the former Berlin Wall. The Philharmonie is on Herbert-von-Karajan- ...

Théâtre du Châtelet The Théâtre du Châtelet () is a theatre and opera house, located in the place du Châtelet in the 1st arrondissement of Paris, France. One of two theatres (the other being the Théâtre de la Ville) built on the site of a ''châtelet'', a ...

in Paris,

Kings Place Kings Place is a building in London's King's Cross area, providing music and visual arts venues combined with seven floors of office space. It has housed the editorial offices of ''The Guardian'' newspaper since December 2008 and is the form ...

in London,

Montreux Jazz Festival The Montreux Jazz Festival (formerly Festival de Jazz Montreux and Festival International de Jazz Montreux) is a music festival in Switzerland, held annually in early July in Montreux on the Lake Geneva shoreline. It is the second-largest annu ...

, Centro Nacional de las Artes in Mexico City,

Istanbul International Music Festival The Istanbul International Music Festival, formerly Istanbul Festival, () is a cultural event held every June and July in Istanbul, Turkey. It offers a selection of European classical music, ballet, opera and traditional music performances with the ...

Rheingau Musik Festival The (RMF) is an international summer music festival in Germany, founded in 1987. It is mostly for classical music, but includes other genres. Concerts take place at culturally important locations, such as Eberbach Abbey and Schloss Johannisberg, ...

, NCPA in Beijing and

Oriental Art Center The Shanghai Oriental Art Center (), abbreviated SHOAC, is one of the leading performing arts, performance and cultural facilities in Shanghai. The five interconnected hemispherical halls or "petals" are shaped to resemble a butterfly orchid from a ...

in Shanghai.

History

The Geneva Camerata was founded in 2013 by Céline Meyer and David Greilsammer. The journalist and film maker Jean-Philippe Rapp is the president of the orchestra's board. Since its first season, the Geneva Camerata's mission has been to open the classical music world to wider and younger audiences and to create unusual projects that bring together different styles, genres, and forms of art. Today, the orchestra gives forty concerts per season, ranging from

performances on period instruments and classical concerts with international soloists, to collaborations with

and

artists, and to special projects with dancers and actors.

Guest artists

Since it was founded in 2013, the Geneva Camerata has collaborated with the flutist Emmanuel Pahud, the violinists Viktoria Mullova,

Patricia Kopatchinskaja Patricia Kopatchinskaja (born March 1977) is a Moldovan-Austrian-Swiss violinist. Biography Early life Kopatchinskaja was born in Chișinău, in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Moldova). She comes from a family of musicians. H ...

, Daniel Hope,

Christian Tetzlaff Christian Tetzlaff (born 29 April 1966) is a German violinist who has performed internationally, with a focus on chamber music. Biography Tetzlaff was born in Hamburg. His parents were amateur musicians and met in a church choir. He began playi ...

, and Nemanja Radulovic, the cellists

Steven Isserlis Steven John Isserlis (born 19 December 1958) is a British cellist. An acclaimed soloist, chamber musician, educator, writer and broadcaster, he is widely regarded as one of the leading musicians of his generation. He is also noted for his div ...

, Jean-Guihen Queyras,

Gautier Capuçon Gautier Capuçon (born 3 September 1981) is a French cellist. He is the younger brother of violinist Renaud Capuçon. Biography Gautier Capuçon was born in Chambéry, Savoie, the youngest of three siblings. His brother is the violinist Rena ...

and Johannes Moser, the mandolin player Avi Avital, the clarinettist Gilad Harel, and with the singers

Anne Sofie von Otter Anne Sofie von Otter (born 9 May 1955) is a Swedish mezzo-soprano. Her repertoire encompasses lieder, operas, oratorios and also rock and pop songs. Early life Von Otter was born in Stockholm, Sweden. Her father was Göran von Otter, a Swedi ...

Sandrine Piau Sandrine Piau (born 5 June 1965) is a French soprano. She is particularly renowned in Baroque music although also excels in Romantic and modernist art songs. She has the versatility to perform works from Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart to Schumann, Deb ...

Véronique Gens Véronique Gens (born 19 April 1966) is a French operatic soprano. She has spent much of her career recording and performing Baroque music, Baroque music. Gens was born in Orléans, France, and studied at the Conservatoire de Paris, winning fir ...

, and

Marie-Nicole Lemieux Marie-Nicole Lemieux, C.M., C.Q. (born June 26, 1975) is a Canadian contralto. In 2000, she became the first Canadian to win first prize at the Queen Elizabeth International Music Competition in Belgium. Early life and education Marie-Nicol ...

. The orchestra has also collaborated with the jazz artists

Richard Galliano Richard Galliano (born 12 December 1950, Cannes, Alpes-Maritimes) is a French accordionist of Italian heritage. Allmusic biography/ref> Biography He was drawn to music at an early age, starting with the accordion at 4, influenced by his father ...

Didier Lockwood Didier Lockwood (11 February 1956 – 18 February 2018) was a French violinist. He played in the French rock band Magma in the 1970s, and was known for his use of electric amplification and his experimentation with different sounds on the electri ...

Tigran Hamasyan Tigran Hamasyan (; born July 17 1987) is an Armenian jazz pianist and composer. He plays mostly original compositions, strongly influenced by the Armenian folk tradition, often using its scales and modalities. In addition to this folk influence, ...

, Yaron Herman,

Jacky Terrasson Jacky Terrasson (born November 27, 1965) is a French jazz pianist and composer. Background Terrasson's mother is African-American from Georgia, and his father is French. From his parents he heard classical music as a child. He began piano lesson ...

, and

Stefano Bollani Stefano Bollani (born 5 December 1972) is an Italian composer, pianist and singer, also active as a writer and a television presenter. He has worked with such musicians as Gato Barbieri, Chick Corea, Bill Frisell, Sol Gabetta, Richard Gallia ...

. In the field of

contemporary dance Contemporary dance is a genre of Concert dance, dance performance that developed during the mid-twentieth century and has since grown to become one of the dominant genres for formally trained dancers throughout the world, with particularly stron ...

, the Geneva Camerata has collaborated with the choreographers Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola, Nicolas Cantillon, Laurence Yadi, Cindy van Acker, and Kirsten Debrock.

Concert series

In Geneva, the orchestra presents every season three main concert series. The first, called Prestige Concerts is the ensemble's subscription series, in which the orchestra features international soloists from the worlds of baroque, classical, contemporary, and jazz music. The second, called Crazy Concerts is the orchestra's most experimental series, in which the group presents shows that bring together classical music, pop, rock, techno, musicals, free jazz, and folk music. The third series, called Family Concerts, is the orchestra's educational series, presenting to young audiences shows that feature opera singers, actors, magicians, shadow theatre artists, and circus artists. In addition to these three series, the orchestra goes regularly to hospitals, clinics, and shelters, in order to share music with those who are in need or in suffering.

Multidisciplinary projects

The orchestra's multidisciplinary projects have included an original show for a dancing orchestra based on

Jean-Baptiste Lully Jean-Baptiste Lully ( – 22 March 1687) was a French composer, dancer and instrumentalist of Italian birth, who is considered a master of the French Baroque music style. Best known for his operas, he spent most of his life working in the court o ...

's opera '' Le Bourgeois gentilhomme'', with a choreography by the Spanish choreographer and dancer Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola. The orchestra has presented several projects with the DJ Francesco Tristano, mixing music by

Johann Sebastian Bach Johann Sebastian Bach (German: Help:IPA/Standard German, �joːhan zeˈbasti̯an baχ ( – 28 July 1750) was a German composer and musician of the late Baroque music, Baroque period. He is known for his prolific output across a variety ...

and

techno music Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...

. For the Antigel Festival, the orchestra created a

video art Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium. Video art emerged during the late 1960s as new consumer video technology such as video tape recorders became available outside corporate broadcasting. V ...

project, bringing together the music of the American composer

John Adams John Adams (October 30, 1735 – July 4, 1826) was a Founding Fathers of the United States, Founding Father and the second president of the United States from 1797 to 1801. Before Presidency of John Adams, his presidency, he was a leader of ...

with a video art creation by Jeff Gaudinet and Hendrik van Boetzelaer. The orchestra has also worked with the circus company Les Objets Volants, with the Romanian puppeteer Liviu Berehoi, the Swiss actress and puppeteer Laure-Isabelle Blanchet, and with the French magician and shadow theatre artist Philippe Beau, creating mini-operas and original shows for children and adolescents.

World premieres

The Geneva Camerata regularly commissions young composers and gives world premiers of their works. Since 2013, the orchestra has given world premieres of new symphonic works by Martin Jaggi, Núria Giménez-Comas, Jannik Giger, Ofer Pelz, Jonathan Keren, Massimo Pinca, Cécile Marti,

Marcos Balter Marcos Balter (born April 1, 1974) is a Brazilian contemporary classical music composer and the Fritz Reiner Professor of Musical Composition at Columbia University. Life and professional career Balter began his music studies at age five at t ...

, Nicolas von Ritter-Zahony, Francesco Tristano, Sergei Abir, and Michael Pelzel.

Discography

The orchestra's first album, released by

Sony Classical Sony Classical is an American record label founded in 1924 as Columbia Masterworks Records, a subsidiary of Columbia Records. In 1980, the Columbia Masterworks label was renamed as CBS Masterworks Records. The CBS Records Group was acquired ...

, will present an encounter between the worlds of baroque, classical, jazz, and improvisation, with jazz pianist Yaron Herman and jazz drummer Ziv Ravitz. The programme of this album, which received its live world premiere at the

on 8 September 2016, also features

Ravel Joseph Maurice Ravel (7 March 1875 – 28 December 1937) was a French composer, pianist and conductor. He is often associated with Impressionism in music, Impressionism along with his elder contemporary Claude Debussy, although both composer ...

's Piano Concerto in G major, played and conducted by David Greilsammer.

References

External links

* {{authority control Chamber orchestras Orchestras in Geneva