The International Youth Symphony Orchestra Bremen has been awarded the Würth Prize of Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland 2025 as "a project of international understanding worth listening to." The ensemble of young musicians from all over the world received the award, endowed with €25,000, on August 19.
In his laudatory speech, Andreas Lemke, former chairman of the State Association of Music Schools in Bremen, praised the orchestra as "a symbol of cultural diversity, civic engagement and personal responsibility" and expressed the hope that "the wind will blow in the direction of open borders again at some point."
The award was presented by Johannes Schmalzl, Chairman of the Management Board of the Würth Foundation, Prof. Dr. Ulrich Roth, Deputy Chairman of the Management Board, and JMD President Johannes Freyer. Freyer emphasized the importance of youth orchestras as a utopia of a successful society: "They are microcosms in which young people can test their impact in the community and are also a role model for us adults."
The International Youth Symphony Orchestra Bremen under the direction of Martin Lentz is taking place for the 25th time this year. Every year, the Bremen Youth Symphony Orchestra of the Bremen Music School invites around 50 musicians aged between 14 and 22 from all over the world to Bremen for a ten-day rehearsal phase to work on a challenging symphonic program, In 2025, participants from Algeria, Egypt, Germany, Iraq, Jordan, Latvia, Tunisia, Turkey, Romania, Scotland, Switzerland, Spain, Syria and the United Arab Emirates are taking part. Through intensive rehearsals and a love of music, a temporary, international ensemble of around 90 young instrumentalists grows together, in which ideological differences, nationalities and religions are addressed, understood and respected.
At the award ceremony at the Carmen Würth Forum at the Würth Group headquarters in Künzelsau in Baden-Württemberg, the prize-winning ensemble performed Benjamin Britten's "The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra," the rarely heard "Rhapsodie pathétique" by Syrian composer Sharif Badreddin with Rimonda Naanaa as soloist on the quanoun and the rousing "Danzón No. 2" by Arturo Márquez.
The Würth Prize of Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland has been awarded annually since 1991 by the Würth Foundation and Jeunesses Musicales Deutschland to artists or ensembles who have rendered outstanding services to the promotion of young musical talent and a cosmopolitan cultural life.
