In the past two weeks, the Young Ambassadors had the wonderful opportunity to participate in two renowned organ festivals held in two ECHO cities – Toulouse les Orgues and the Göteborg International Organ Festival. We are deeply grateful to both artistic directors, Yves Rechsteiner and Hans Davidsson, for inviting us to take part in these remarkable events.
In Toulouse, Marie Petit (YA of Leuven, BE) and Xinjie Li (YA of Alkmaar, NL) presented a family concert featuring well-known classical works arranged for organ, including Eine kleine Nachtmusik by Mozart for organ four hands. During rehearsals, the YAs met a school group of about forty children and introduced them to the organ. The children were very curious and enthusiastic, and it was a real pleasure for us to interact with them. Some asked wonderfully creative questions, while others even tried playing the organ themselves. This encounter was without a doubt one of the highlights of our time in Toulouse!
The concert was very well attended. We were delighted to see many families and young couples with children in the audience. After the concert, Marie offered another short organ presentation for those who wanted to learn more.
On Sunday, a round-table discussion about the young organ generation was held, led by Yves Rechsteiner, the artistic director of the festival. This is a completely new addition to the festival program and opened an inspiring space for reflection and dialogue.
The following week, our journey continued – this time from France to Sweden! Our YAs Xinjie Li, Tove Kyvik (YA of Trondheim, NO), and Artur Szczerbinin (YA of Olkusz, PL) arrived on Monday, while another performer, Fabrizio Guidi (ECHO Organist of 2025, YA of Tangermünde, DE), joined us on Thursday. We attended the evening concert, prepared for the next day’s masterclasses, and celebrated our reunion with Benedetta Porcedda (YA of Göteborg, SE) over a beer!
Throughout the week, we made many new friends. During the lunch breaks after each day’s concert, we had the chance to talk with other participants and exchange experiences from the festival. In addition to preparing for our own concert on Friday the 17th, we also actively participated in inspiring masterclasses given by Nathan Laube, Ludger Lohmann, Bine Bryndorf, and Isabelle Demers.
After intensive rehearsals, we performed our concert with the theme “Mannerism.” Benedetta prepared an excellent PowerPoint presentation illustrating artworks (paintings, sculptures, etc.) in the Mannerist style. Our program was performed on both the Brombaugh and Marcussen organs and featured music from various centuries – from the Renaissance to the modern era – including not only original organ compositions but also arrangements and intabulations. It was an absolutely wonderful experience to design the program together from the very beginningselect artwork for each piece, plan the rehearsals collectively, and finally share the concert on stage.
We made new friends, introduced ECHO and ECHO Young to many people, and enjoyed reconnecting with one another. We are very much looking forward to continuing to contribute to these wonderful organ festivals in our ECHO cities!
Xinjie Li
