At this year’s Klaipėda festival we will continue the initiative launched in 2025 to introduce audiences to performances by festival guests, inviting them to a concert by the French National Youth Orchestra.
Founded in 1982 at the initiative of the French Ministry of Culture, the French National Youth Orchestra (Orchestre Français des Jeunes, OFJ) brings together young musicians from across France. Promising young performers are selected to join the orchestra and participate in intensive creative sessions, giving them the opportunity to work with internationally acclaimed conductors and world-renowned soloists.
The orchestra performs throughout France, including at the Philharmonies of Paris, Lille, and Dijon, as well as at prestigious festivals, and also tours internationally during the summer. Each year, three orchestra sessions are organized, bringing together around one hundred young musicians studying at France’s music academies. During these sessions, the musicians work alongside experienced professionals to study orchestral repertoire ranging from the 18th century to the present day.
Since the summer of 2025, the orchestra’s Music Director has been the Estonian conductor Kristiina Poska. Every year, the orchestra undertakes a European tour, presenting the “French sound” and introducing young orchestral musicians to the professional performance cultures of different countries.
This concert marks the first appearance of the French National Youth Orchestra in Lithuania.
Concert programme:
R. Strauss — Symphonic Poem Also sprach Zarathustra
M. Ravel — Suite No. 2 from the ballet Daphnis et Chloé
M. Ravel — Bolero
Performers:
French National Youth Orchestra
Conductor: Kristiina Poska (Estonia)
