The now finished Nordic pilot project, PLAY!GROUND LIVE NORDIC, aimed at creating a touring talent development orchestra across the borders of the Nordic countries, guided by the well-known Danish musician and composer, Bo Stief.

The concept and the idea behind PLAY!GROUND LIVE NORDIC originated from Swinging Europe’s national talent development orchestra, PLAY!GROUND LIVE, which has enjoyed great success annually for 17 years by touring all over Denmark.

In PLAY!GROUND LIVE NORDIC, each Nordic partner country choose three musicians aged between 15 to 22 to participate in the orchestra and the consecutive Nordic tour. The project started with an intensive 3-day bootcamp session in Herning, Denmark. During these three days, the musicians lived and played together under the direction of Bo Stief, who instructed the young musicians in solo performances, interaction with the audience, as well as how to perform together as a harmonious unit.

Throughout the process, Bo Stief focused on creating a safe and welcoming learning environment that helped develop the young musician’s creativity. Through differentiated teaching, he both focused on the orchestra as a whole, but also on solo lectures, where his starting point always was based on the strengths and weaknesses of the individual musician.

Learning by doing was a teaching principle which runs throughout PLAY!GROUND LIVE NORDIC as concept, which concerned itself with sending the young talented musicians out into the real world and giving them new cultural insight, as well as practical experiences as professional musicians. PLAY!GROUND LIVE NORDIC’s Nordic tour took place from the 28th of February – 9th of March 2017 and spanned the countries of Denmark, Sweden and Finland.

The Nordic tour in 2017 included a selected number of concerts in each country, as well as seminars and workshops for music teachers and students. Through these seminars, we wished to share experiences and generate new knowledge about talent development in the Nordic region.

A total of three partners collaborated with Swinging Europe to realise PLAY!GROUND LIVE NORDIC in 2017: Riksförbundet Unga Musikanter (RUM), Korsholm Music Institute and Legato Music Institute. From the 2nd – 5th of October 2016, we had a kick-off meeting with our Finnish and Swedish partners, as well as our conductor Bo Stief, which took place at Skærgården Folk School.

Further information about the project can be found at: www.playgroundlive.dk