FCM ♥ Valdres Sommersymfoni
From summer of 2022, Fairplay Chamber Music and Valdres sommersymfoni will show what a sustainable future can look like for the classical music industry.
Two of Scandinavia’s leading chamber music festivals have teamed up in an effort to quickly lower CO2 emissions and find new ways to make classical music part of a sustainable future.
– Just like all industries, the classical music industry must change in order to be sustainable, and it must happen as quickly as possible. Travel is what traditionally causes by far the most emissions, and with our new collaboration we want to show how we can help each other to produce culture at the highest international level with close to zero CO2 emissions, says Jakob Koranyi, cellist and one of FCM’s two artistic directors.
Violinist Guro Kleven Hagen is the artistic director of Valdres sommersymfoni, a festival and summer course located in Valdres, Norway. The festival is regularly visited by internationally renowned artists such as Quatour Ébène, Leif Ove Andsnes and Paul Lewis.
– By coordinating parts of our programs, the festivals will see efficiency gains, which, apart from lowering the travel emissions, provide artistic and financial benefits as well. In 2022, festival musicians will rehearse and perform their programs in Valdres before going to Järna where they will repeat the program and teach at the festival’s masterclasses, explains Guro Kleven Hagen.
For some years already, all artists and students at FCM are required to travel sustainably which means no flights or fossil fuel cars. FCM has received overwhelmingly positive feedback from both the public and the musicians for their push for sustainability, and many express their gratitude that someone is finally doing something.
– Sustainability has been a question close to our hearts since the conception of Fairplay Chamber Music five years ago, and we are very happy to see that many of the organizers and musicians we have worked with get inspired to take steps towards becoming more sustainable themselves. We really hope that the larger institutions could look at what we are doing, see that it works and that many people really want this from their organizers. The institutions have great potential to rapidly reduce their emissions without sacrificing their quality, concludes pianist Peter Friis Johansson, FCMs second artistic director.
Additional information
Fairplay Chamber Music’s new artistic board consists of Jakob Koranyi, Peter Friis Johansson and Guro Kleven Hagen. The board will strive to create a joint programme on the highest international level and to develop principles for long term environmental work.
Fairplay Chamber Music is one of Sweden’s leading chamber music festivals. Founded in 2017, FCM is a value based non profit organisation which produces near zero-emission chamber music festivals and summer academies at Kulturhuset in Ytterjärna, just outside Södertälje, Sweden.
Valdres sommersymfoni / Valdres Summer Festival hosts around 25 concerts at an internationally top level every year in the Valdres region in Norway. Musicians like Leif Ove Andsnes, Quatuor Ebène, Paul Lewis and the Oslo Philharmonic have all visited the festival. Alongside the festival, 300 young musicians take part in the courses during Valdres sommersymfoni.
Artistic Directors:
Jakob Koranyi
https://imgartists.com/roster/jakob-koranyi/
Peter Friis Johansson
https://www.peterfriisjohansson.com/
Guro Kleven Hagen
https://guroklevenhagen.com/