d'Frënn vun de Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker

past and current facts, new approaches

Short historical overview
The association was established in 1987 under the name of ‘Les AMIS de l’Orchestre Symphonique de RTL’.

The two objectives laid down in the statutes were:

   - to promote symphonic music in the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
   - to support the activities of the RTL orchestra
 

Why this emphasis on ‘symphonic music’? The explanation is that at the time, there were talks around town that RTL or more precisely their parent company CLT was considering reducing the financial burden of the orchestra by changing its structure from a fully-fledged symphony orchestra to a chamber orchestra or a chamber philharmonic orchestra of its own.

The founding members of the association wanted to give their full support to those, especially at political level, who held the opinion that Luxembourg should have a permanent symphony orchestra.
 

Those stormy times for the orchestra came to an end in 1996  when the Luxembourg government took over the orchestra, changed its name into ‘Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg’ and placed it under the authority of a specific legal entity ‘, the Fondation Henri Pensis’  named after  the founder and first musical director of the orchestra.

The ‘d'Frënn vun den Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker’ contributed  with 3 million Lux Francs to the starting capital of the foundation. The statutes of the d'Frënn vun den Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker were adjusted that same year to take into account the new name of the orchestra.
 

A further very significant step for the orchestra took place at the beginning of 2012 when  the Luxembourg Philharmonic and the public establishment ‘Salle de Concerts Grande-Duchesse Joséphine-Charlotte’  (the Philharmonie) merged.  This new entity created new opportunities not only for the orchestra itself, but also for the ‘d'Frënn vun den Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker’ .
 

Current activities of the d'Frënn vun den Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker

Around 1990/1991, the d'Frënn vun den Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker arranged a series of chamber music concerts given by the musicians of the then RTL orchestra. These concerts were scheduled in the evenings. In 2003, after a lull of several years, the d'Frënn vun den Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker, with the cooperation of the Luxembourg Philharmonic musicians, relaunched the chamber music concert series, but scheduling them at 11.00 a.m. on Sundays, under the name of ‘Concerts-Apéritif’ – an appellation reflecting the concept where, after the concerts, the audience is offered a drink as well as the opportunity to meet with and talk to the musicians and fellow music lovers.

The programs and the set-ups of these concerts are selected from a list of proposals submitted by the musicians themselves for each orchestral season with the aim of providing a wide variety of both lesser and better known pieces. Over the years, the musicians have been very successful in their endeavor to come up with programmes comprising rarely performed works, little known composers and last but not least, pieces written for unconventional ensembles, thus ensuring that the concerts stand out from the usual chamber music fare.
Interestingly, in recent years, we have, together with the musicians, received requests from municipal or private organizations throughout the country to repeat concerts in locations ranging from churches to castles, theaters, parks and other local facilities. In most cases the musicians were  happy to oblige.
 

Another well-established and very popular initiative of the d'Frënn vun den Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker are the ‘voyages d’accompagnement’  where trips are organized for members offering them  the opportunity to travel to remarkable towns and attend performances given by the Luxembourg Philharmonic when they are on tour outside of the Grand-Duchy. The very first  of these trips was organized in 1988 to the Belgian town of Namur where the then RTL orchestra participated in the performance of Mahler’s 8th symphony, together with their counterpart of the Belgian RTBF  and of course 600 chorus singers, under the overall direction of the Luxembourgish conductor Pierre CAO.
In recent years, trips included towns like New York, London, Paris, Tallinn, Zurich, Budapest, Vienna, Amsterdam, Naples, Prague, Wiesbaden, Geneva, St. Petersburg and Munich.

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Following the merger of Luxembourg Philharmonic and the Philharmonie in 2012, the newly appointed general management was kind enough to accept our long standing request to grant members of our association free access to three or four rehearsals (répétitions publiques) of the Luxembourg Philharmonic, be they under the direction of its permanent chief conductor or a guest conductor. Members are individually informed in due time and by mail about the exact time schedule of these rehearsals as well as their respective programmes.
 

From the outset, the board of the d'Frënn vun den Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker has firmly believed that their support for symphonic (and chamber music) in Luxembourg should also entail support to Luxembourgish composers, in as far as the rather limited financial means of the organization could be made available for this kind of initiative.

The following works have so far been commissioned or co-commissioned by the d'Frënn vun den Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker:

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1993 Alexander Müllenbach: Flugsand
1997 Claude Lenners : Nachtschattengesänge
1999 Alexander Müllenbach : Dark Crystal
2007 Alexander Müllenbach : Opal
2014 Camille Kerger : Fließen, Zerfließen, Klavierquintett (to be created in 2016)

2021 Yvan Bouman : Brasseries

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Future outlook

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In 2013, the board of our association took the decision to broaden the scope of its activities by including areas like the financing of instruments for the orchestra, granting financial assistance to Luxembourg Philharmonic musicians for advanced training courses and participating financially or by other means in initiatives intended to enable young musicians to train for a career as an orchestra player.
However, this broadening of our palette of activities requests a fundamental change in our approach to collecting money from donors or sponsors since we need to be able to make these grants “tax deductible”. This requires a special statute, called ‘utilité publique’ for our association. The procedures imposed by the Luxembourgish legislation to file a corresponding request with the authorities have been fulfilled and we have been granted this status.

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Means of communication of the d'Frënn vun den Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker

for ‘general purpose information’, the former publications "Bulletin de liaison" and "La dépêche des AMIS" are replaced with ‘Le Diapason’ published in German and  French, without a fixed schedule, but when the need for a publication arises
for the public rehearsals, members receive an individual invitation
the same applies to invitations for the ‘voyages d’accompagnement’ and of course the annual general meeting and the extraordinary general meetings.
a new internet site of the d'Frënn vun den Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker is scheduled to go-live’ in by end 2023. It will assume an ever increasing role in the communication with the members. However, we are aware of the fact that not all our members are adequately familiar with this medium, thus we will continue relying on a printed form for some time to come.

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Members of the Board

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Pierre Thielen, President
Barbara Geiser, Vice-President
Diana Degano, Cashier

Members : Mario Cortolezzis, Marie-An Dehullu, Jean-Marie Gieres, Arend Herold, Monique Hamilius, Uli Loersch, Aloyse Maes, Jean-Claude May, René Meyer, René Reimen, Arnold Schaak, Josette Welter.

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Contact the Board :

by Phone   +352 20 600 413
by E-Mail     info@amisopl.lu

postal address :
d'Frënn vun den Lëtzebuerger Philharmoniker  
B.P. 1027  
L-2739 LUXEMBOURG