Auditions have been held at the Music Academy in Katowice for young Polish musicians to be included in a new international orchestra which is to bring together also musicians from Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Moldova and Armenia.

The project – under the motto ‘I, Culture Orchestra’ – is the brainchild of the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Warsaw, a government agency dealing in the promotion of Polish culture abroad.

According to its spokesperson, by creating such a multi-national orchestra, with a sizeable contingent of musicians from the Schengen zone of free travel, Poland would like to highlight the importance of the Eastern and Western components of Europe’s cultural identity.

The project is a part of the programme of the Polish presidency in the European Union.

The orchestra, modelled on the European Union Youth Orchestra, is to perform in the autumn in such prestigious venues as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and the Royal Festival Hall in London, in addition to the National Philharmonic Halls in Warsaw, Kiev and Minsk. (mk)