Scandinavium Side by Side 2024: Festival Concert

The Gothenburg Symphony was formed in 1905 and today consists of 109 musicians. The orchestra's base is Göteborgs Konserthus, the funk gem at Götaplatsen that has gathered music lovers since 1935. Since the 2017-2018 season, Santtu-Matias Rouvali has been Chief conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony. Since the 2019-2020 season, Barbara Hannigan is Principal guest conductor. We are also a proud partner of Barbara Hannigan's Equilibrium mentoring program focusing on young singers at the start of their careers. Wilhelm Stenhammar was the orchestra's chief conductor from 1907 to 1922. He gave the orchestra a strong Nordic profile and invited colleagues Carl Nielsen and Jean Sibelius to the orchestra. Under the direction of conductor Neeme Järvi from 1982-2004, the orchestra made a series of international tours as well as a hundred disc recordings and established themselves among Europe's leading orchestras. In 1996, the Swedish Riksdag appointed the Gothenburg Symphony as Sweden's National Orchestra. In recent decades, the orchestra has had prominent chief conductors such as Mario Venzago and Gustavo Dudamel, following Kent Nagano as Principal Guest conductor. Anna-Karin Larsson is CEO and artistic director, Gustavo Dudamel honorary conductor and Neeme Järvi chief conductor emeritus. The orchestra's owner is the Västra Götaland Region. The Gothenburg Symphony works regularly with conductors such as Herbert Blomstedt, Joana Carneiro, Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Christian Zacharias and Anja Bihlmaier.

“Ron Davis Alvarez is a man accustomed to making miracles” (The New York Times). Selected, in 2017, as one of the world's 50 best teachers by the Varkey Foundation, as part of the Global Teacher Prize, known as the Nobel Prize for teaching, Venezuelan Ron Davis Alvarez is specialized in training teachers for children and youth orchestras. He has lectured conferences and master classes with teachers from Colombia, Mexico, United States, Chile, United Kingdom, Denmark, Italy, Germany, France, Greenland, Sweden, Turkey, South Korea, Ecuador, Finland and Greece, in the latter he taught in a refugee camp. In 2016, Ron Davis Alvarez created in Gothenburg, Sweden, the Dream Orchestra with children and teens aged between 8 and 19 years, refugees from the violence in Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Kurdistan, Albania, Eritrea and Somalia. The objective has been to integrate them into Swedish society. This group, which already has more than 50 members, is also distinguished because its musicians have never played an instrument before. The model of the Dream Orchestra is being emulated in several European countries. Product of the renowned Venezuelan musical and social program, known as El Sistema, Alvarez was formed at Miranda State, Venezuela, as a violinist, orchestra conductor, teacher and cultural manager. Alvarez founded in 2011 an orchestra located 700 kilometers away from the Arctic Circle at the Uummannaq Children's House in Greenland, the first orchestra of Inuit children in El Sistema. His main mentors are maestro José Antonio Abreu, Franka Verhagen, Igor Lanz, Gregory Carreño, Ruben Cova, Ann Andreasen, Victor Vivas and Tupac Amaru.

Marjolein Vermeeren made her successful professional conducting debut with the Gothenburg Wind Orchestra in May 2022 and she has been back as guest conductor several times since then. She has worked with professional orchestras such as Östgötamusiken, Marinens Musikkår and Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra and has led El Sistema concerts with the Malmö Symphony Orchestra and the Swedish Chamber Orchestra. In the 2024-2025 season, she will make her debut with the Norrköping Symphony Orchestra and Gotlandsmusiken. Marjolein Vermeeren is flutist in the Gothenburg Symphony and grew up in the southern Netherlands where wind music is big. She has worked a lot with youth orchestras and participated for several years at Side by Side as a conductor and instructor for the oldest participants.

Emilia Hoving has emerged as one of most exciting young Finnish conductors of today. She was the winner of the Finnish critics’ prize 2021 for the Best Newcomer in the Arts. Her assignments as Assistant to Hannu Lintu at the Finnish Radio (2019) and to Mikko Franck at Radio France (2020-22) both led to international appearances with orchestras such as the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Luxembourg Philharmonic, BBC Symphony and Orchestre National de Lille as well as with the Helsinki Philharmonic. Emilia Hoving has conducted at Wiener Konzerthaus and made her German debut with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France in their Berlin Philharmonie concert 2022 at only a few hours’ notice. In 2023-2024 she debuts with Swedish Radio Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic, Tonkuenstler Wien, Bournemouth Symphony and Tenerife Symphony orchestra. She also led the school concert Bubbles at the Gothenburg Symphony in 2023. In Summer 2022 she made her Tokyo debut at Suntory Hall conducting the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony and her UK debut conducting the Philharmonia, where she has now become a regular guest. Hoving has conducted many works by living (particularly Finnish) composers, and last season gave the Australian premiere of Missy Mazzoli’s Procession at the Adelaide Festival. Hoving studied at the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki with Professors Sakari Oramo, Atso Almila and Jorma Panula.

Birgitta Mannerström-Molin is a choir conductor and singing teacher. She also teaches at the University of Stage and Music in Gothenburg and is involved as a course instructor and choir conductor at national level. She has also been involved in the development of El Sistema in Sweden and is the conductor and artistic advisor for Side by Side by El Sistema, which is performed every year by the Gothenburg Symphony. In 2016, Birgitta Mannerström-Molin was appointed Children's and Youth Choir leader of the Year. She is also a teacher at Hvitfeldtska Musikgymnasiet and project leader for young people at Sweden's Church Song Association.

Ida Rosén Hamrå has worked at the Gothenburg Opera since 2009 when she was hired to form a children's choir at the Opera. Today, Ida Rosén Hamrå is musical director of the Create department and conductor of Gothenburg Opera's Children's and Youth Choirs, which consists of three choirs with members aged 9–25. She has previously also worked with adult choirs, but now focuses entirely on work with children and young people. Ida Rosén Hamrå is trained in viola and choral conducting at Ljungskile Folk High School, Uppsala University and the University of Stage and Music in Gothenburg.