The Orchestra Mozart has written one of the most significant chapters of classical music of our time. It is now time to write the next one.

In 2004 OM started playing. For 10 years, famous étoiles and promising young musicians have played together: learning, experimenting and innovating.

For 10 years, OM has hit the stage of the most famous European concert halls.

For 10 years, Claudio Abbado has groomed the Orchestra, planting a seed that is now flourishing.

In 2014, the Orchestra Mozart stopped playing , however the echo of its achievements still resonates.

OM is the musicians who play in it, some of the brightest orchestral stars in Europe, fulfilled with enthusiasm and creative tension and united by the common goal of making music together.

OM is an Italian excellence, appreciated and loved by the whole world, now on its quest for its own voice.

OM is experience, innovation, education, devotion, it’s endless love for music, a restless need of expression, a shared desire to play again.

A desire that can be fulfilled only thanks to the contribution of all.

Of the musicians, who want to follow the path indicated by Claudio Abbado and feel again the immense joy of playing together.

Of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna, the cradle of Orchestra Mozart and at present, the Pygmalion of its rebirth.

Of all those who have seen the OM play, who recognise its value and want to see it grow.

Of all those who want to encounter, know, listen to the OM.

Of all those who want the OM to play again.

Support the Orchestra Mozart, make it play again!

What’s our goal?

It's been two years since we have last heard the OM play. The silence generated by this sudden stop requires an answer, the answer is the project OM Encore: our goal is to make the Orchestra Mozart play again. Via this crowdfunding campaign, which will last for one year, it will be possible to donate and to contribute to the rebirth of the Orchestra; we are looking for public and private supporters, friends, aficionados; we want to lay now the foundations of tomorrow’s OM. We propose a sustainable , participatory, new and farsighted way of making culture.

We talk about sustainability because nowadays an orchestra can’t subsist only on public funds and on the profits of the productions; an orchestra has to develop new strategies and establish partnerships to make contact with other institutions, it must turn music into a vehicle of communication between culture, business and privates in a dynamic and productive connection.

We talk about participation because the goal of “OM ENCORE” is to connect directly the public with the orchestra, allowing everyone to take part in the project. OM presents concerts, previously unreleased recordings but also moments of guide to music listening, public rehearsals, workshops for children and other activities that aspire to directly involve the public and to make classical music more accessible to everyone. 

We talk about foresight because the strategies and the activities we are putting in action today won’t be immediately depleted , instead they aim to lay the foundations of a solid future. This is the reason why we’ve chose crowdfunding and this is why we’re creating connections with theaters, public institutions and enterprises. The OM project revives today but it aims to evolve in the future with new productions, hybridizations with other art forms, collaborations with public and private institutions that wish to share with us the view of music as joy to play – and to listen – together.

What does crowdfunding mean?

In line with what has been said until now,  we plan to direct the search for fundings towards a diffused fundraising campaign, to involve Bologna, the international public and all the people that have grown fond, or that will grow fond,  of the Orchestra.  In one word: “crowdfunding”. The etymology of this word explains how crowdfunding works: it aims to involve the community, the crowd, to collect many little contributions that will reach the required budget. 

Our first step was to realize that the public is an integral part of an orchestra just like the musicians, the conductor, the staff. And you, listener, you are already part of the orchestra.  What if you could do more? You could get to know the musicians for example, or take part to the rehearsals, share moments of guide to music listening, venture into contaminations with other musical and artistic genres. The multiformity of an orchestra also allows an incredible richness of contents and of paths of involvement ; to be part of the Orchestra Mozart means attending concerts but also making contact with music and musicians.. you’ll be the one who decides how to take part in the OM.

OM is an orchestra but its identity also lies in the musicians it is composed of, OM is concerts, listening, education  and discovery.  Every side represents a way to approach OM, to discover its worth , to contribute to its rebirth. 

How do I donate? 

If you’re a private, in every section of the website you’ll find a different way to take part in the project: concerts, unreleased pieces and videos, special contents, workshops, meetings with the musicians, antiques of the Academy. You can donate via paypal, credit card or Bank transfer (IBAN IT69V0335901600100000141183 BIC/SWIFT code BCITITMX). 

If you’re a company or an institution contact us at segreteria@accademiafilarmonica.it. Together we will develop a made-to-measure project with the protagonists of the Orchestra Mozart.

Above all we ask you to spread the idea of the project, to talk about it with everyone, to follow us on social networks. Tell us about your experience with OM and with classical music, write us at info@accademiafilarmonica.it your suggestions, your impressions. 

How will the funds be used?

All the funds raised will go to the Regia Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna, the institution from which OM was born and which is now promoting this campaign. 

An orchestra can’t subsist without a sound economic basis, this is why the funds we will raise during this one year crowdfunding campaign will serve to build the financial stability that Orchestra Mozart needs. Our goal is to collect 500.000 euro, a sum that will allow us to guarantee a 2-years activity for the Orchestra; an activity that will begin with the first concert which will take place in early 2017. At the same time, the Accademia Filarmonica’s staff is working to organize tournées around the world, establishing links with the greatest theaters and concert halls where the OM has played in the past and will play in the future. 

What’s the Orchestra Mozart?

Orchestra Mozart represents a unicum in the international music scene because of its history , its identity and because of the musicians that form it. This Orchestra, founded by Claudio Abbado in 2004 as a special project of the Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna, in ten years of activity has matured a fine musical quality and a working method that have revolutionized the way of making music together. 

OM is a symphony orchestra with a chamber-music attitude that has elected listening, meticulous study and sharing as indispensable qualities of chamber music and values on which its very identity is founded. 

Two years after the suspension  of the Orchestra’s activities, the musicians and the Accademia Filarmonica are getting involved and willing to tell about OM and to give voice again to an Italian excellence appreciated all around the world.  With this project we want to write a new chapter, we want to restart an articulated and extraordinary cultural project that proposes  an innovative artistic line, a new bond with the city and the local territory and a strong international inclination, not to forget the educational programmes and the involvement of very young talents through the “Accademia dell’Orchestra Mozart“.

An additional innovative step was to completely renew the communicative apparatus by showing OM’s versatility, relying on transparency and on the daily report of the current projects. In fact thanks to this renewed website it is possible to interact at different levels: listening, taking part in events, getting to know the musicians, supporting the rebirth of the Orchestra.  

Who are the musicians of Orchestra Mozart?

The musicians will keep on being, and they’ll be more than ever, the protagonists of the entire project : showing their faces and telling their stories will be the fulcrum of the communication campaign.  Open rehearsals, concerts in unusual locations, day by day reports on the activities with texts, pictures and mini video clips will be some of the instruments through which we’ll try to overturn the traditional perspective, by identifying the orchestra not just with its name but with the faces of its musicians, every one of which is a primary and irreplaceable piece for the whole structure. This is why we have dedicated to them one of the most important sections of our website!

The musicians of this initiative are untiring experimenters, breeding ground  for new ideas and keepers of exhilarating anecdotes. They’re excellent professionals, friends, confidants, every one of them is aware of the uniqueness of the experience they’re part of. For 10 years they’ve met in Bologna and they’ve nourished themselves with the teachings of Claudio Abbado, who changed them as musicians and as human beings and brought them to be the spearheads of European classical music. It’s a privilege to hear their stories and to hear them explain what it means to play in the Orchestra Mozart, and it’s right to make this privilege available to all. 

What’s the Accademia dell’Orchestra Mozart?

In this project, education and learning play a crucial role. In parallel with Orchestra Mozart there’s the  Orchestra Mozart’s Academy, the extraordinary forge of young talents; talents which,  grown under Abbado’s guidance and of the first parts of the Orchestra, have gradually become part of the steady group of the players in the Orchestra . It’s a virtuous circle that offers young talents the chance to learn with the best musicians in the international scene and, at the same time, the chance to truly understand the Orchestra’s spirit and its values. The Accademia is an innovative medium at the service of excellence education; a medium that was born within the walls of one of the most ancient music institutions in Europe, in which Mozart himself studied when he was very young. 

What’s the current artistic line?

We will also innovate the Orchestra structure: the structure will be flexible, based on needs and productions. This choice will allow to develop more projects and activities. Moreover, all the musicians have agreed on being equally remunerated, with no distinction between parts. A most innovative and farsighted agreement that speaks volumes about the shared will to play again in a project in which every musician matters.

The artistic line of this project is based on different parallel tracks; just as we did in the past, we will keep on cooperating with the greatest names of the international music scene, which not only have already worked with the Orchestra, but they have often shared the artistic vision of Claudio Abbado. Musicians the caliber of Maurizio Pollini, Martha Argerich and Isabelle Faust have shown interest towards this project. 

The Orchestra also proposes concerts in which the protagonists, as conductors and soloists, will be the excellences that form the Orchestra itself, its musicians. Therefore OM wears continuity and innovation at the same time.

What’s the Regia Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna?

The  Regia Accademia Filarmonica di Bologna was founded in 1666 by the nobleman Vincenzo Maria Carrati, in Via Guerrazzi 13. "Unitate melos" is the motto coined by the foundation, that academics today  interpret it as "music sharing", to emphasize that all activities are carried out thanks to the collaboration with valuable synergies with many musical realities of the territory.

During its centuries-long history, the Accademia always represented a landmark in the cultural life of Bologna and became, in the second half of the eighteenth Century, one of the most renowned institutions in Europe, through the guidance of Padre Martini. The young Mozart sought the academic license: accompanied by his father Leopold, arrived in Bologna in 1770 to train under the guidance of Father Martini in contrapuntal composition.

In recent years the Academy has promoted a wide range of cultural-reaching initiatives, most notably the Orchestra Mozart. The traditional concert season, which features two chamber music cycles in Sala Mozart, is combined with high professional training for young musicians, including the Accademia dell’Orchestra Mozart, open to young musicians. The Accademia also pays much attention to musical research, with several conferences and workshops organized each year, and the enhancement and recovery of its priceless archive and library, kept in the library. In addition to the examination script of Mozart, the archive holds and keeps safe  numerous important musical autograph scores, including Rossini’s Cinderella, and valuable pages of authors such as Liszt, Beethoven, Salieri, Bellini, Wagner, Verdi, Puccini.

The Accademia Filarmonica holds a strong relationship with the music of our time: as an unbroken thread of tradition, the Accademia continuously commissions new works to great composers on the international scene, such as Karlheinz Stockhausen, Luis de Pablo, Peter Maxwell Davies, Adriano Guarnieri and Azio Corghi.