INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION

Every year, the Abbaye aux Dames signs new partnerships with foreign conservatoires to allow students taking part in the JOA courses to receive grants covering all or part of their training fees.

In 2007, the Abbaye aux Dames has welcomed students from Thailand within the framework of an initiation course to the interpretation of the classical repertoire on period instruments , as well a string quartet from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre in Vilnius.

The Abbaye aux Dames and the Kyoto French Institute have developed an original cooperation project for the years 2004, 2005 and 2006. The instructors from the Abbaye aux Dames, all of whom are members of the Orchestre des Champs Elysées, go to Kyoto each year in April to give classes during the French Music Academy in Kyoto. Each year, the winners from this academy - three to five musicians - are then invited to Saintes for the symphonic session in July during the Festival de Saintes.

In 2004 and 2005, the Abbaye aux Dames was also associated with the French Institute in Budapest and with the French Embassy in Stockholm to allow five students from the Liszt Ferenc Conservatory in Budapest and the Malmö Music Academy to take part in the symphonic JOA course.

In 2005, as part of a new partnership initiated by the Moscow Tchaïkovski conservatory, a Russian student took part in a course thanks to the support of the French embassy in Moscow.

Since 2006, the Jeune Orchestre Atlantique has joined the European Federation of National Youth Orchestras.

TAFELMUSIK BAROQUE SUMMER INSTITUTE

The Abbaye aux Dames in Saintes and the orchestra Tafelmusik, a Totonto based ensemble specialising in ancient music, have developed a further option to their advanced studies programmes: the interpretation of Classical and Romantic repertories and Baroque repertoire.

This cooperation finds its meaning in exchanges between the Jeune Orchestre Atlantique course in Saintes and the Toronto Tafelmusik Baroque Summer Institute.

Jeanne Lamon, Tafelmusik musical director, has conducted the JOA in the Haydn Opera Isola Disabitata, in April 2005 in cooperation with the Atelier Lyrique from the Paris Opera. Furthermore, since 2005 JOA students take part in the TSBI, and young musicians from Toronto are invited to the Abbaye aux Dames to take part in the symphonic JOA course during the Festival de Saintes.

For more information on this programme, please see the website www.tafelmusik.org or call +1 (416) 964-9562.