The European Medical Students’ Orchestra (EMSO) was started in Wurzburg, Germany, in 1993. The orchestra consists of young medical students and doctors from all over Europe, everybody with a musical background and a great enthusiasm for playing in orchestra. It started as a wish to give European medical students a chance to meet and perform great orchestral music. In the beginning it was a chamber orchestra, but it has grown in size and popularity, and today EMSO is a symphony orchestra of about 60 musicians from more than 20 European countries. Every year we meet in different European cities, and the ten year anniversary was celebrated with concerts in Prague and Dresden.
During the years EMSO has performed many great, well-known orchestral works, among them Shostacovich 5. symphony, Rachmaninov 2. symphony, piano concertos by Grieg and Liszt, violin concertos by Mendelssohn and Berg, Elgar cello concerto and the Karelia suite by Sibelius. It is also a tradition to play something from the host country, for instance “Hary Janos” by the Hungarian composer Zoltan Kodaly and “Symphonic overture” by the Portuguese Joly Braga Santos.
EMSO has gained recognition for a high standard and a youthful glow in the performances. In Ljubljana, 1995, the orchestra’s performance of Mendelssohn’s violin concerto was sold out, and the concert was broadcasted at the national radio station of Slovenia. In Budapest, 2002, a Hungarian journalist wrote: ”thrilling from the beginning to the end” about the performance of Liszt’s piano concerto. In Poznan, Poland, the concert was heard by more than a thousand listeners, and was also sent by the Polish national radio.
Every year EMSO has been friendly welcomed by the host country and the great European universities we have visited. In 1999 the orchestra was invited to dinner with the Lord Mayor of Aberdeen, and in 2001 we were welcomed by the Spanish secretary of culture.
After the first EMSO in Würzburg (1993), EMSO has visited Freiburg (1994), Oxford/London (1995), Ljubljana (1996), Barcelona (1997), Stockholm (1998), Aberdeen (1999), Basel (2000), Porto/Salamanca (2001), Budapest/Szeged (2002), Prague/Dresden (2003), Poznan/Gdansk (2004), Norway (2005), Bristol(2006), Szolnok/Szeged (2007) and Rome (2008).
Previous EMSO conductors :
Dr. Gunther Weitz (1993-1997)
Julian Gibbons (1998, 2000)
Dr. David Banney (1999, 2001-2005)
Tom Gauterin (2006)
Haig Utidjian (2007,2008)
