Articles by: S. K.

  • Facts & Stories

    FICO Eataly World Opens in Bologna

    On Wednesday, Nov. 15, Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni inaugurated the opening of FICO Eataly World, a 100,000 square-meter agri-food park located on the outskirts of Bologna, Italy’s “City of Food.” The establishment claims to be largest of its kind in the world.

    The free admission park, just a 20-minute shuttle ride from Bologna Centrale (the city’s central station), is designed as a tribute to the excellence of Italian food and beverage products. The emporium promises a journey to “discovery of all the wonders of Italian biodiversity,” from the farm to final plate.  

    The driving force behind Eataly World, FICO (Fabbrica Italiana Contadina) Foundation for food and sustainability education, is the result of collaboration between Andrea Segre, who is the president of CAAB (a market hall known as the Agri-Food Centre of Bologna) and the mastermind behind the flourish Eataly food hall brand, Oscar Farinetti. Other contributors include the municipality of Bologna (represented by Mayor Virginio Merola), the Italian Consumer Cooperative and several private investors.   

    An Amusemnt Park for Food:

    Nicknamed by much of the media as the “Disney World of food,” FICO Eataly World offers a fun and educational display to help visitors not only enjoy beloved Italian cuisine, but to also better understand the features of Italian agriculture and production that shape its existence. The park includes 20,00 square-meters of farmland and stables, housing more than 200 animals and 2,000 cultivated plants. Visitors can also witness the production of Italian specialties in meat, fish, cheese, pasta, oil, confections, beer, wine and more.

    Eataly World is comprised of 40 farms, 45 trattorias, 26 food stalls, six food-related rides, three Michelin-starred restaurant outposts, and a 30,000 square-foot marketplace. FICO refreshment areas will also be available for food tastings. The park offers 50 educational courses and 30 events each day.

    Attendees can explore the vast itinerary on foot or by bike, venturing either at their own leisure or guided by Italian Biodiversity Ambassadors trained in the secrets of Italian food and culinary delights.

    The FICO Eataly World project, which took nearly four years to reach completion, cost something around €120 million to produce. The park collaborates with more than 150 Italian companies, both small and large, and in the process has stimulated more than 3,000 jobs.

    FICO predicts that the attraction will draw in millions of visitors each year from all over the world, in turn providing a substantial boost in tourism for the entire region.   
  • Antonio Verde - Consul General of Italy in Los Angeles
    Dining in & out

    Week of Italian Cuisine in the World Returns to L.A.

    For the next seven days, the Consulate General of Italy in Los Angeles celebrates the second annual Week of Italian Cuisine in the World with events organized in collaboration with other local and Italian institutions.

    This year’s event, named Cuisine of the Stars: From Italy to Hollywood, is organized in parallel with Cinema Italian Style (CIS)–an yearly affair dedicated to the best of Italian film–emphasizing the connection between exceptional cinema and cuisine in Los Angeles.

    From Nov. 13 - 19, the week will include creations from star chef Leandro Luppi, as well as various screenings, master classes, exhibitions, conferences, workshops, galas, tastings and more, promoting excellence in Italian culinary and cinematic arts.

    The Week of Italian Cuisine in the World is an initiative started by the Italian government in order to support Italian culinary traditions and the Mediterranean Diet abroad, specifically highlighting sustainability, food security and rights, education, territory and biodiversity.

    The occasion is meant to, as Consul General Antonio Verde underlines, confirm “the importance of the joint effort of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation with the Ministry for Agricultural Policies, Food and Forestry in support of culinary and gastronomic excellence as a distinctive sign of Italian identity and culture.”

    Each day of the celebrated week is devoted to a specific product or aspect of Italian cuisine: Monday is all about pasta and rice; Tuesday promotes pizza (in support of a UNESCO nomination for the Art of the Pizzaioli Napoletani); Wednesday features conviviality and the Italian table; Thursday’s element is wine; Friday focuses on cheese; Saturday pinpoints salami; and Sunday savors sweets and pastries.   

    Special Events:

    Once the week kicks off with some opening tastings, promotional activities and a master class on Monday, the following days will see two events presented by the Italian Cultural Institute of Los Angeles. On Tuesday, Nov. 14, the Institute organizes an evening dedicated to Naples as part of its Travel in Italy series (produced in part with the ENIT, the National Tourism Agency). Verde will introduce the official candidacy of the ‘Art of Neapolitan Pizza-Making” for Unesco’s Intangible Heritage of Humanity list. A presentation by ENIT on the port of Naples and the city’s nightlife tourism, as well as a screening of Matteo Troncone’s documentary Arrangiarsi (Pizza…& the Art of Living), will follow.

    On Wednesday, Nov. 15, LA’s Italian Cultural Institute will inaugurate this year’s Cinema Italian Style showcase with a presentation of Laura Delli Colli’s book Bread, Films and Fantasy, The Taste of Italian Cinema– a piece exploring a culinary journey through Italian cinema. The event will also see the opening of photographic exhibition Cinema e Cibo, a cinematic representation of 20th Century Italian eating habits, produced by Luce Cinecitta.    

    The famous Chef Luppi will provide a special menu, a “synthesis of flavors and images,” for the Cinema Italian Style Gala on Thursday evening (Nov. 16), held at Hotel Mister C. The next day, Friday Nov. 17, Luppi presents, along with the Fratelli Drago (Drago Brothers) of the Sicilian restaurateur family based in LA, an exclusive reception at the General Consul Verde’s residence.

    Advocating Italy's Local Territories:

    The menu will showcase national DOP products, spotlighting Italy’s rich gastronomical culture. Accordingly, the chefs will use high-quality ingredients from areas affected by the recent earthquakes in Italy, as a show of solidarity toward boosting local economies undergoing challenge.  

    The Week of Italian Cuisine in the World is also a crucial part of the “Made in Italy” promotional program launched by the Italian government with the aim of increasing distribution and commercial presence of authentic Italian food and wine products, as well as to bolster tourism to lesser-known territories. The event even holds activities focused on spreading training programs offered in the culinary field in order to attract talent from abroad and strengthen customer retention for Italian products. Countries targeted by this message include the United States, Canada, Brazil, Japan and the United Arab Emirates.  

     
  • Francesco De Gregori and Stefano Albertini at Casa Italiana. Photo by Shushu Chen
    Art & Culture

    De Gregori Visits Casa Italiana at the Kick Off of His NY Debut

    Monday, on the eve of his first performance in New York City, Italian singer-songwriter Francesco De Gregori was hosted by NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò, for a conversation with Stefano Albertini, Clinical Associate Professor Of Italian at NYU and Director of Casa Italiana.

    De Gregori's NY Debut

    De Gregori’s concert, which took place on Nov. 7 at the legendary Town Hall venue in Midtown, is the second show of the artist’s United States debut, following an inaugural performance in Boston this past weekend. His American concert series is important not only because it is a long-awaited appearance on US soil, but also because is one that spans the culmination of his entire career.  

    “It’s a concert that is not representing just one CD, it’s not promoting one CD. When I do a concert normally I try to make a setlist, I try to play 20-23 songs that represent a part of my career that starts since I was 25 years old till now. I want  to represent myself the way I feel, and I feel like a man who has written so many songs in his life that it’s not just a conventional thing….it’s my ambition,” said De Gregori as he addressed the crowd at Casa Italiana.

    De Gregori and His US Models

    In his conversation with Albertini, the musician discussed his deep and ongoing relationship with American music and culture. De Gregori, born in Rome in 1951, recounted his first experiences with American music, thanks to his older brother, who would play their grandfather’s guitar in the house let him listen to Elvis Presley in the 60’s. This is the point when De Gregori fell in love with instrumentation like bass and drums.  

    “Elvis is sort of a bridge between Italian and American music because one of his first songs that I heard was “It’s Now or Never,” that is the translation in English of an important song that is “O Sole Mio.” Maybe this has some kind of connection for what I am here for, Italian and AMerican music that sticks together,” mused De Gregori.

    More than just American music, other aspects of American culture such as movies and cartoons also inspired the young De Gregori and greatly influenced his development since childhood.

    De Gregori recounted, “My brother used to play cowboy songs, country songs, western songs, so this was my first impact with guitar. And this has strong relation with the movies I started to  see at the time, John Wayne etc. And the comics like Superman, Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck. These had been the first impressions of American culture in my life.”

    De Gregori and Bob Dylan

    De Gregori is often esteemed to the same level as Bob Dylan, one of the singer’s strongest musical influences. In 2015 he released an album De Gregori canta Bob Dylan – Amore e Furto, which immediately became the record of the week and hit the top of the Fimi/Gfk Chart.

    “Well Bob Dylan, he created the revolution in the music of the world. And I think that I am not the only one who is so fascinated by him. Sometimes, I happen to listen to some songs by American artists and I think, ‘Oh this is just like Bob Dylan.’,” the artist remarked of the great American folk singer.

    For De Gregori, these US performances signify not only a new platform to share his music, but also an emotional return to the origins of the trajectory of his remarkable career as a musician. “American music, I think the roots of my music are still with her, in part,” he said.
  • A video presentation of the NIAF's 42nd Annual Gala
    Art & Culture

    The Italian-American Legacy to Sparkle at NIAF’s 42nd Gala

    The National Italian American Foundation will take over the Washington Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington D.C. this weekend, in celebration of its 42nd Anniversary NIAF Gala. From Nov. 3–5, attendees will enjoy an entire weekend of tri-color, Italian-American pride at our nation’s capitol.

    Produced in partnership with The Italian American Studies Association, the annual gala is a one-stop shop for all things Italian culture and Italian-American heritage. Together, IASA and NIAF will provide guests with a variety of events such as screenings, discussions and of course, plenty of food tastings.  

    NIAF’s History and Tradition

    Founded in 1975 by Jeno Palucci (an Italian-American businessman known for many of his ventures in the food industry), NIAF is a national nonprofit, nonpartisan educational foundation headquartered in Washington D.C. It is the largest representation of Italian-American citizens living in the U.S., with more than 20 million members. The organization is focused on two principal goals: to “ensure that Italian-Americans continue to keep alive and present the rich heritage of their values ​​and cultural traditions, and to ensure that the whole community does not forget the great contributions Italians have made to the history and progress of the United States,” according to NIAF’s website.

    To fulfill these aims, NIAF works closely with the Italian Embassy in D.C., the Italian American Congressional Delegation and the White House to collaborate on major issues related to the Italian-American population.

    Each year, NIAF hosts two galas for its members and sponsors in celebration of the foundation’s continuing legacy–one in New York and the upcoming event in D.C. The extravagant event is well-known, usually attracting attendance by 3,000 guests from the U.S. and Italy, as well as the President of the United States and other important political and cultural leaders. For the occasion of its annual gala, NIAF honors prominent members of Italian and Italian-American community. In the past honorees have included Frank Sinatra, Luciano Pavarotti, Sofia Loren and Antonin Scalia, the first Italian-American justice to the Supreme Court.  

    For its 42nd anniversary, the NIAF Gala has selected Sicily as the region to pay tribute to this year. This means that as the Region of Honor, the Gala Weekend program is full of people, food, and activities that reflect the timeless traditions that have allowed Sicily to make its mark on the world.

    The Gala Program For This Year

    The weekend begins bright and early on Friday, as NIAF University (8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.) provides free introductory sessions on Italian language, cooking, Sicilian history and more, which are open to the public. Later that evening there will be a Kick-Off Dinner (9 p.m.) in the Mariott Ballroom, including performances by Sicilian favorites Lena Prima, Carmelo Sorce and Alfio. The celebration will also feature a silent auction and open bar, complete with custom Italian cocktails. Guests will enjoy a pre-fixed menu from local Italian restaurants Lavagna, Sette Osteria, Il Canale, Lup Verde, Aperto and Al Tiramisu.

    Saturday promises to be jam-packed and full of fun, starting with the free Expo Siciliana (9 a.m. - 4 p.m.), where Italian-American and Sicilian exhibitors showcase educational, as well as commercial offerings dedicated to ‘La Sicilia.’ Visitors will experience the best of Sicily, from Sicilian vodka and wine, to espresso and the island’s culinary specialties. Leading the group of Sicilian entrepreneurs will be President of Unioncamere Confindustria Antonello Montante, known best for his famous bicycles. In attendance as well will be the new chairman of the port authority of Palermo, Pasqualino Monti, who was awarded the NIAF Prize for International Relations for his work in creating a hub for the transport of American Chrysler cars produced in Italy to Melfi.   

    The expo also includes Sicilian dancing, bocce ball and a playful puppet show by Sicilian marionette performer Tony De Nonno. The educational aspect incorporates lessons on how to trace heritage, how to apply for dual Italian and American citizenship and the benefits of a Mediterranean Diet. In terms of entertainment, Expo Siciliana will present films by winners of the Russo Brothers Italian American Film Forum, as well as a book signing with Stephen Talty, author of The Black Hand (a book about a heroic Italian-American NYPD detective).

    After the expo, a cocktail reception begins at 5:30 p.m. in the Marriott Mezzanine preceding the main event, the NIAF Awards Gala. Doors to the ballroom open at 7 p.m. for a seated, black-tie Sicilian dinner recognizing those who have received special distinction by NIAF this year. The event is emceed by Emmy Award-winning journalist Maria Bartiromo and comedian Joe Piscopo. The Gala will also feature a performance by Alessandra Salerno, who is a favorite of NIAF President John Viola. The night ends with an infamous After Hours Party, where guests can dance the night away to traditional Italian music.

    For those still standing after Saturday night’s festivities, the weekend will conclude with a Sunday Mass, conducted in Italian, at Holy Rosary Church (10:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.). Established in 1913, the church was built to serve Italian immigrants who lived in the neighborhood.

    This year, NIAF’s honorees are Nick Stellino, HRH Princess Beatrice di Borbone delle Due Sicilie, Jon DeLuca, Vittorio Grigolo and Alessandro Profumo, who will receive his prize from Confindustria President Vincenzo Boccia.

    To learn more about these award recipients, and details of the NIAF 42nd Anniversary Gala, visit the NIAF website here >>

     
  • A frame from 'Franca: Chaos and Creation,' a tribute to his mother Franca Sozzani by Italian Director Francesco Carrozzini
    Art & Culture

    N.I.C.E. Film Festival Celebrates its 27th Edition in the United States

    Music, fashion, wine and cinema–these are just a few of the drawing points that bring millions of Americans across the Atlantic to Italy’s colorful coasts each year. Next month, New Yorkers will not have to travel very far to experience their favorites of the Italian culture.

    After opening in San Francisco, the N.I.C.E. Film Festival will make its way to New York City from Nov. 14 - 17. In celebration of its 27th edition in the United States, the festival partners with The Italian Cultural Institute as well as NYU Casa Italiana Zerilli-Marimò to host three screenings and a special cultural event.

    Cultural Exchange through Cinema:

    Each year, since its founding in 1991, N.I.C.E. coordinates a traveling film festival including stops in the US, Russia, England and China, featuring seven of Italy’s best up-and-coming productions to an international audience. The films compete for the City of Florence Award, and the winner is decided by ballots from the audience.

    N.I.C.E. is a non-profit cultural association, founded in Florence by Viviana Del Bianco and a group film professionals, with the goal of promoting independent Italian cinema abroad. While at first the program engaged mostly Italians living overseas, the demographic of audiences has consistently shifted to include a growing number of both movie lovers and Italophiles alike.

    The Festival Program:

    This year’s New York itinerary premieres downtown at NYU Casa Italiana Zerrilli-Marimò, with a screening of Francesco Carrozzini’s Franca: Chaos and Creation on Tuesday, Nov. 14 (6pm). The documentary serves as a tribute by Carrozzini to his mother Franca Sozzani, the late, pioneering Editor-in-Chief of Vogue Italia. Her son’s film establishes an intimate window looking into Sozzani’s achievements, creative process and vulnerabilities. A Q&A session with director Carrozzini and journalist Grazia D’Annunzio will follow the viewing.

    The next day, the Italian Cultural Institute on the Upper East Side, will host a showing of Nicolas Carreras’ The Duel of Wine (6pm). The film uses a fictitious, comedic storyline centered on the real-world famous sommeliers Charlie Arturaola and Luca Gardini to bring the audience on a satirical journey through the world of competitive wine-tasting. After the screening there is a Q&A with Uruguayan sommelier Charlie Arturaola and producer Lino Pujia, moderated by Simone Bracci. The event also includes a “wine tasting.”

    The final screening, held again at Casa Italiana on Friday (6pm), will see Salvatore Allocca’s Taranta on the Road make its US debut. Followed by a Q&A with the Allocca, screenwriter Amara Lakhous and Director of Casa Italiana Stefano Albertini, the film tells the story of two Tunisian migrants to Apulia who become entrenched in an unexpected and life-changing voyage with the help of a Taranta band. The movie takes audiences on an emotional journey tuned to a soundtrack of Taranta, the popular traditional folk music of the region.

    All events are free and open to the public. For more information and details of the festival, see: http://www.nicefestival.org/en/new-york-2017
  • Giuseppe Arcimboldo, 1590's, "Vegetables in a Bowl" or "The Gardener" (reversible head)
    Art & Culture

    Arcimboldo’s Curious Legacy on Display in Rome

    For the next four months, Rome will host the work of Italian Mannerist painter Giuseppe Arcimboldi (1526-1593) in an exhibition at Palazzo Barberini. The retrospective is titled Arcimboldo, after the artist’s popular name.      

    The show, curated by leading Arcimboldo expert Sylvia Ferino-Pagden, is organized by the National Galleries of Ancient Art in Rome in collaboration with MondoMostre Skira.

    As of this weekend, until mid-February, visitors have the opportunity to admire approximately 100 works of 16th century Lombard culture. Nearly 20 of these pieces are by the Milanese painter himself, while rest are products of his contemporaries.

    Arcimboldo: the Unconventional Mannerist

    Arcimboldo is known for his imaginative and bizarre portrait heads made entirely of objects such as fruits, vegetables, books, animals and flowers. Accordingly, the display will include art objects, tapestries, mosaics, botanical drawings and animal drawings as well, in order to reproduce for spectators the scientific, intellectually stimulating environment in which the artist’s individual talent was nourished.

    Navigating through the exhibition’s spacious rooms, visitors will be transported to the workshop where a young Arcimboldo, training under his father and among followers of Leonardo da Vinci, was inspired by components of art, science, philosophy and humanism. The result: an artistic expression that challenged the conventions of the classical style prevalent in Rome during the 16th century.   

    In fact, director of the National Galleries of Ancient Art in Rome, Flaminia Gennari Santori, explains that the artwork represents "a very serious rhetorical game, a sort of engagement with the visitor's intellect."

    The Exhibition

    The show’s itinerary commences with a tribute to the Milanese environment where Arcimboldo grew up. Like his father, Arcimboldo began his career as a designer of stained glass and frescoes at local cathedrals. He was introduced by a family friend to the legendary da Vinci, whose fascination with the physical human body, particularly grotesque portraits, seemed to touch Arcimboldo and his work.

    The exhibition continues with the period the artist spent as a portrait painter in the Habsburg courts of Vienna and Prague. Under the service of Ferdinand I, Maximilian II and Rudolf II, Arcimboldo was appointed to the lucrative title of Count Palatine. This selection includes a portrait of the “Archduchess Anna,” as well as Arcimboldo’s famous personification of the four “Seasons” in dialogue with the four “Elements” (which has not been exhibited for at least 20 years).

    After a detour through a section on naturalistic study, the next chapter is Arcimboldo’s so-called “reversible heads.” The paintings are referred to as such because they are still life images that become human faces when rotated 180 degrees.

    "They are playful and strange images where however nothing is left to chance," says Santori.

    Coupled with the following sections on composite busts and portraits, these two collections in succession demonstrate Arcimboldo's ability to not only show nature and human beings at the same time, but also to illustrate how closely related they are. From a distance, the composite heads seem to be normal human portraits. Yet a closer view reveals individual objects, carefully selected to characterize the subject, forming various anatomical shapes of a human bust.

    These last works are often referred to as Arcimboldo’s “ridiculous paintings,” of which the Palazzo’s exhibition holds masterpieces such as “The Librarian” and “The Jurist.”

    The Arcimboldo exhibition is open Saturdays and Sundays from 9am until 7pm. Tickets are sold for 15 € (13 € reduced). Children and teens under 18 may enter for free.

    For more information see: http://www.arcimboldoroma.it/
  • Main characters of the Netflix series "Suburra." From left to right: Aureliano "Numero 8" Adami (Alessandro Borghi), Gabriele "Lele" Marchilli(Eduardo Valdarnini), Alberto "Spadino" Anacleti (Giacomo Ferrara)
    Art & Culture

    Italian TV Series Raising the Bar on the Global Map

    This month, Netflix released its first Italian-language original series Suburra: Blood on Rome, a contemporary crime drama centered on corruption in Italy’s capital. The show, which will also air domestically through collaboration with RAI–Italy's national broadcasting netwrok, provides a thrilling glimpse (based on recent scandal that broke in Rome) into the “underworld” of politics, religion and Mafia.

    Following the lead of groundbreaking local productions like Gomorrah and The Young Pope, Suburra is the latest in evidence of a shift in Italian TV toward catering to broader global tastes. The transition derives, in large part, from the ambitions of Italy’s creative talent to command Hollywood’s attention back to their country.

    In the 1950s and 60s, Rome’s Cinecittà Studios triumphed as one of the largest and most successful studios in Europe. The city became known as “Hollywood on the Tiber,” as stars like Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni dazzled audiences around the world in films by world-class directors such as Leone, Fellini and Rossellini. Italian cinema defined the era, but crisis plagued the industry throughout the 80s, seeing a stark decline in the notability of Italian films.

    Since the 90s, a new generation of directors and actors have been driving Italian cinema to compete on a global level. This time, they are blazing the trail with high-end television. Many of these new TV series embrace shocking topics such as drugs, prostitution and gangsters, as well as political and religious exploitation–areas that were avoided by the more reserved shows of the past.

    Italian journalist Roberto Saviano, author of international bestseller Gomorrah, teamed up with Palomar and Entertainment One to develop a series titled Qaddafi, about the late Libyan tyrant of the same name. Co-written with Israeli director Naday Schirman, revolves around a cruel dictator with a “bottomless desire for power” and “worldwide revolution.”

    RAI’s Medici: Masters of Florence began shooting a second season this September. The show enjoyed widespread success last year, as it told the story of a young Cosimo de Medici, who found himself at the head of the family banking empire after his father was mysteriously poisoned. The coming season will continue the story of the Medici, seeing Cosimo as a budding Florentine revolutionary.

    Additionally, Paolo Sorrentino plans to shoot another limited series, set to air on Sky and HBO, called The New Pope, following his hit, The Young Pope. Details are being kept confidential, but production is planned to start in late 2018, seeing a different character as pope in the new show.

    Efforts to adapt and enhance Italian TV are part of a larger movement that includes reviving the status of the nation’s cinema as well. Through a combination of greater tax credits and renovated production facilities, the industry hopes to recreate a distinct, Italian cinematic identity that rivals others around the world.
  • Members of the European Youth Orchestra from the Netherlands.
    Art & Culture

    The European Youth Orchestra to Leave UK for a Fresh Start in Italy

    After 40 years of serenading audiences from its London headquarters, The European Youth Orchestra will find a post-Brexit home in Italy, Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini announced last week.

    The EUYO was established in London in 1976, and has since brought together young musicians from all over the European Union in the name of exceptional musical performance. However, the orchestra’s future was threatened in 2016, due to disclosed cuts in funding from the EU, as well as political turmoil regarding the UK.

    In May of that year, the EUYO announced it would cease operations within the next four months. The news fostered backlash throughout the EU, and the need for a new plan of action was emphasized by the UK’s ‘Brexit’ decision to leave the Union.

    “It makes absolutely no sense for the office not to be in the EU,” Marshall Marcus, the orchestra’s CEO since 2013, told The Guardian. “You can’t ask for EU funding and then not be in the EU.”

    As a result of negotiations, the EUYO will now be legally headquartered at RAI broadcasting offices in Rome. RAI is the only European State broadcaster to support the EUYO as its first official broadcasting partner. The EUYO will operate out of Ferrara’s Abbado Theatre, named after the orchestra’s founder, Claudio Abbado.

    Abbado, a native of Milan, is considered one of the most illustrious conductors of the 20th century. He has served high-ranking positions at international opera houses such as La Scala, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna State Opera and the Berlin Philharmonic. Abbado also acted as a principal guest conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

    Now, nearly three years after Abbado’s death, it seems fitting that the EUYO will take residence in the homeland of its founder. Today, the orchestra is directed by Vassily Petrenko and holds true to its mission with 160 musicians hailing from each of the EU’s 28 member states. Though UK musicians are currently still eligible to play for the EUYO, it is unlikely they will be accepted to the program in the future.                                      

    European Parliament Culture Committee member Silvia Costa, who proposed the bid to transfer the orchestra’s headquarters, believes the move signals “a strong and coherent message on the value and the role that culture, music and young artists represent in Europe.”