Scandinavium Side by Side 2025: Festival Concert

Welcome to take part in a magical musical experience where over 2,000 young musicians and singers perform together with Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. At Festival Concert, you’ll meet the participants from the international music camp Side by Side, who will showcase what they have learned during camp. There will be everything from classical symphonic music to magnificent choral songs and a premiere of a whole new piece of music.

The international music camp Side by Side creates meeting places where children and young people from different cultures and backgrounds can play and sing together, side by side with professional musicians. Side by Side is organized by the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra every summer and is open to participants aged 6-23. The camp promotes the spread of classical music and works for tolerance, cooperation, and equality.

During Festival Concert, the over 2,000 participating singers and musicians form massive choirs and orchestras in various combinations for a powerful musical manifestation together with the entire Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. All under the direction of conductors Ron Davis Alvarez, Emilia Hoving, Marjolein Vermeeren, Birgitta Mannerström-Molin, and Ida Rosén Hamrå,

A Musical Experience to Remember

This year’s program includes, among other things, Alice Tegnér’s beloved Ute blåser sommarvind (A Summer Wind Blows Outside) for choir and orchestra, classical pieces by Mozart, Bernstein and Brahms, as well as gradiose film music in Vangelis’ Conquest of Paradise. In addition to this, the traditional sailor’s song Wellerman makes a fond return together with Zara Larsson’s Symphony.

The concert also boasts the premiere of Två hjärtan slår samma slag (Two Hearts Beat the Same Beat) composed by Tormod Tvete Vik. He wrote the basic melody for the performance Bubblor (Bubbles), which was performed in 2023, but now the music has been rearranged for the massive Side by Side orchestra and given a beautiful text by Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra’s own Mats Kjelbye.

Festival Concert marks the end of the music camp for many of the participants, but Side by Side also offers several other concerts during the week.