122 subscribers willing to take part to the workshop, only 35 places available: these are the numbers the day after the deadline for submitting to the auditions & workshops that Theresia will organize in Venice from the 4th to the 7th of May. There is hunger for orchestra, there is hunger for Theresia. Of course we expected a higher number of registrations compared to the number of places available, but those figures have surprised us – positively.

The candidates come from 30 different countries: Italy ahead (32 subscribers), followed by Spain (18), France (16), Poland (11) and United Kingdom (5); and then a series of mostly non-European nationalities: we received subscriptions from Brazilian musicians, Canadians, Chileans, Taiwanese, Indonesians and Australians! Finally, the average age is 24 years (the subscriptions where open to musicians younger than 28 years old).

Now it’s up to the three conductors – Claudio Astronio, Chiara Banchini and Alfredo Bernardini – and to the artistic director Mario Martinoli to identify, according to the curriculum and the video received, the 35 musicians that will take part to the stage: there they will prove themselves in the orchestral and chamber workshops and then be selected for the next productions of Theresia Youth Baroque Orchestra.