EUYO EXPLORES 'THE DARK SIDE', SURREALISM AND THE WORLD OF THE CHILD AT GRAFENEGG MUSIC SUMMER AND CARINTHISCHER SOMMER

The EUYO will launch its summer tour 2011 with two magnificent concerts in Grafenegg, Austria, as part of the renowned Grafenegg Music Summer series. After a two-week rehearsal period, generously hosted by Grafenegg, the EUYO will perform on Saturday 6 and Saturday 13 August under the baton of Dutch Maestro Jaap Van Zweden and the EUYO's much-loved Music Director, Vladimir Ashkenazy. The legendary HK Gruber, one of Austria's most famous contemporary composers and performers, will join the EUYO on 13 August in a performance of his celebrated 'pan-demonium', Frankenstein!!, taking the role of 'chansonnier.' The residency and concerts mark the return of the EUYO to Grafenegg for the third consecutive year. From Grafenegg, the EUYO returns for the first time in 25 years to Villach, as part of the celebrated Carinthischer Sommer festival.

The repertoire will take the EUYO's young musicians - and our audiences - on a strange but exciting and fantastical musical journey, much of which explores 'the dark side', surrealism and the world of the child, from Mahler's grotesque reference to children's fairytales, through to HK Gruber's startling and playful vision of Frankesntein, Goldfinger, John Wayne, Dracula, superheroes and the stuff of nightmares. The EUYO will also perform two chamber concerts in Grafenegg ahead of the main concerts, including settings of Roald Dahl's poems Dirty Beasts, and Poe's Masque of the Red Death.

Rehearsing Satie's surrealist Parade, which includes a fog-horn, type-writer and glass bottles among the instruments

As part of its summer tour 2011, the EUYO will also perform in front of Her Majesty Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, an Honorary Patron of the Orchestra, at the Royal Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, on Thuesday 9 August. After Austria, the Orchestra will perform in Italy (Bolzano) and Germany (Kassel and Berlin).