The concept of the Youth Symphony Orchestra is to establish a cross-border philharmonic workshop as a new stage showcasing talents from the Lake Constance region. Commitment is required from all cultural creators, especially young people, in order to achieve this. This is the only way the Lake Constance cultural region can further grow into a shared living space from its current basis.

The Quarta project was launched and is directed by conductor and musician Christoph Eberle from Hittisau in the Bregenzerwald. He is a famous conductor and clarinettist, founded the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra and directed it for many years. He has always been able to find a good work-life balance despite his many commitments with international music theatres and guests conductorships. He now has four musical children with his wife Christiane and says,

“for me, making music together and the musical content is always the priority. I am critical of the prevailing competitive culture that has been around in the music business for some time now and is solely concerned with speed and technical skills. It’s just wonderful to see the young musicians grow together during our shared rehearsals week. It’s completely normal for the better ones to carry the less able ones. It creates an orchestra with a heart and passion.”

His musical family with 4 children was the catalyst for his idea of teaching symphonic literature to his little musicians and to give them an insight into professional musical life by introducing them to experienced musicians. The emphasis is placed on the main points of “we” and “shared”. And so the QUARTA 4 Project was founded in 2014. Begun in the autumn of 2016 with a brilliant series of concerts, “Quarta 4” – the only cross-country youth symphony orchestra in the Lake Constance region – took the experts completely by surprise and delighted the audiences.

In 2019, Christoph Eberle kicked off the now 5th series of concerts with these young musicians, with dates in Liechtenstein, Switzerland, Germany and Vorarlberg. The members of the orchestra, aged between 14 and 26, first practised their wonderful pieces under his direction during a week of intensive rehearsals.

Chamber music has also now found a spot on the programme with a second, smaller series of concerts in the spring. It had been part of the plan all along. The conductor, who has played clarinet at the highest level for many years, wants to pass on his experience in this field to the next generation of musicians, too.  The series of chamber concerts will continue in spring 2020. We are excited and looking forward to it.