Voices from the Sylff Community

On April 13 and 14, 2024, Sinfonietta Passau—a symphony orchestra founded and led by Eleni Papakyriakou (University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, 2012)—performed highly acclaimed concerts supported by an SLI grant. She outlines the significance of the orchestra not only in promoting gender equality but also in enriching the cultural life of the community and achieving musical and social harmony.

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Sinfonietta Passau is a newly founded symphony orchestra in the Bavarian city of Passau, on the German-Austrian border. The orchestra consists of 64 musicians, mainly freelance professional musicians from the wider region and advanced students from the nearby music universities in Linz, Munich, and Salzburg—a well-balanced mixture that combines quality, passion, vitality, and youthful energy. The 33 female and 31 male orchestra members came to Passau over three weekends in March and April 2024 for intensive rehearsals and two concerts in Passau and nearby Deggendorf. The program consisted of:

• Philipp Ortmeier (Passau-born composer): “Tree of Life” for soprano and orchestra, German premiere (first prize at the March 2023 “Orient/Occident” international competition in Ukraine). Soloist: Sarah Romberger
• Gustav Mahler: Orchestral songs from “Des Knaben Wunderhorn.” Soloist: Sarah Romberger
• Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 7 (Bruckner Year 2024)

Sinfonietta Passau, April 2024. ©Florian Stelzer

The concerts were highly successful—the press reviews and the feedback of the audience were very enthusiastic:

“A great evening: standing ovations for Sinfonietta Passau with Bruckner’s Seventh and Philipp Ortmeier’s “Tree of Life.” You can feel the trust between the orchestra and the conductor. The orchestra is highly motivated. The conductor masters the large orchestra with clear gestures and great calm. She takes the pauses seriously and makes them wonderfully fitting in the room.”
—Passauer Neue Presse

“Great musical sensitivity: The conductor succeeds in making the sound layers in this monumental work [Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony] audible in a finely nuanced way. The Bruckner interpretation receives standing ovations and many “Brava” calls for the conductor.”
—Rabenstein Kultur Blog

Sinfonietta Passau performing at the Church St. Peter in Passau, April 13, 2024. ©Florian Stelzer

Back in my teenager years, the beauty and power of Anton Bruckner’s music awakened in me a love for the orchestral sound and a strong will to become a conductor. I wanted to understand the masterpieces of the symphonic repertoire and the message of the composers in depth and then share it with the audience. I already had a vision of the social impact music can make—as the legendary conductor Leonard Bernstein said: “Art never stopped a war. But it can change people. It can affect people, so that they are changed—enriched, ennobled, encouraged—they then act in a way that can affect the course of events . . . by the way they vote, they behave, the way they think.”

Several years later, my dream came true. After studying orchestral conducting at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna and my professional experience with various orchestras in Europe, I decided to create my own symphony orchestra. Together with other supporters we founded the nonprofit association Sinfonietta Passau e.V. in October 2022. My vision was not only to share with the public the beauty and the message of orchestral masterpieces, which are so rarely heard around Passau, but also to have a major social impact. As it turned out, the social benefits were much more than I had thought at the beginning. 

Like many other female conductors, I faced discrimination and unfair treatment in my professional career up to that point. A study by the German Cultural Council in 2021 showed that currently only 8% of conductors in leadership positions in Germany are female, and the same percentage applies worldwide (study commissioned by the conducting competition, La Maestra Paris, in 2022). As the founder and music and artistic director of Sinfonietta Passau, I wanted to send a powerful message to the world of classical music: musicality and leadership skills have nothing to do with gender. Female conductors are equally capable of effectively leading an orchestra as their male colleagues, so they should be given more chances and should be treated with the same respect. This applies also for women in leadership and managerial positions in general.

Eleni Papakyriakou conducting Sinfonietta Passau in the Church Mariä Himmelfahrt in Deggendorf, April 14, 2024. ©Florian Stelzer

During the post-pandemic revival of the cultural scene, another goal was to provide greater opportunities for freelance professional musicians. According to a survey by the Berlin State Music Council, a third of freelance musicians no longer see any future in the music profession, and many have already given up or are in the process of reorienting themselves. In addition, I wanted to offer advanced music students the chance of working with professionals, which is of great educational value. The music students can also supplement their CV with professional experience, which gives them a higher chance of being invited to audition for permanent orchestra positions.

An important part of the social action of the orchestra is the inclusion of musicians who come from disadvantaged or war regions, thus promoting mutual understanding and helping create a more open society that is free of prejudices. The peaceful coexistence of people from different origins and social backgrounds is one of the most important purposes of an institution like an orchestra, as well as of music in general. For the April 2024 concerts, professional musicians who fled Ukraine because of the war were invited to participate.

In the small but culturally vibrant city of Passau, a large part of the modern orchestral repertoire—symphonic music by composers such as Bruckner, Mahler, and Sibelius, as well as contemporary music—was almost never heard. But the region has some exceptional local composers, whose works are worth listening to. This combination of old masterpieces with contemporary music, along with rarely performed works, proved to be very successful in enriching the city’s musical life. At Sinfonietta Passau’s founding concerts in 2023, we performed the world premiere of a work by Bavarian composer Cornelius Hirsch. And in the recent concerts in April 2024, the “Tree of Life” by Passau-born composer Philipp Ortmeier impressed the audience and the critics and ensured the composer the recognition he deserves.

Sinfonietta Passau also aims to act as a springboard for young, talented soloists, who are at the beginning of their careers, in addition to collaborating with internationally acclaimed soloists. In the founding concerts, the award-winning young Greek flutist Stathis Karapanos and the internationally renowned flutist and professor at the Paris Conservatory Philippe Bernold performed the rarely played flute concerto by Carl Nielsen. In April 2024, we had the honor to perform with mezzo-soprano Sarah Romberger, who has already started a brilliant career in Germany. The public was moved and excited with her powerful interpretation of Philipp Ortmeier’s “Tree of Life” and Gustav Mahler’s songs.

Mezzo-soprano Sarah Romberger and Sinfonietta Passau, April 14, 2024. ©Florian Stelzer

All in all, the two concerts in April 2024 were a huge success and resonated widely in the local community. The objectives of the orchestra were achieved, and everyone is looking forward to future activities. Sinfonietta Passau aspires to become an important cultural institution in the region, making the city of Passau a radiant artistic center on the German-Austrian border that is worthily represented in international festivals in Germany, Austria and neighboring countries.

Sinfonietta Passau performing on April 14 at the Church Mariä Himmelfahrt, Deggendorf. ©Florian Stelzer