Twenty years ago, an artists’ collective organised workshops for young adults from different countries in cooperation with the Red Cross Sombor in Bački Monoštor for the first time. Over more than a decade, the Project took place directly at the EU’s external border in a beautiful area close to the Danube.

Camp for Cultural Exchange, Respect and Tolerance
Bački Monoštor 2002 – 2013

The Sombor Red Cross and the Swiss organisation Common Causes Bodensee-Rhein have been working together successfully for more than ten years, organising this cultural youth exchange camp. Some members of the Orlando project management team have been part of this camp since its beginnings.

The main goal was to improve the communication between young people of different nationalities through various creative workshops (theater, music, newspaper, radio, animated films, etc.). The target group consisted of young adults between 18 and 25 years old from all parts of former Yugoslavia and other European countries (Germany, Hungary, Switzerland). Besides the unique experience of having achieved an individual creative result, one of the main successes of the camp were long-lasting friendships and a network across all borders of Europe.

It was in 2013 when opera dramaturg Dr. Merle Fahrholz and opera director Alvaro Schoeck conceived the idea of an educational opera project. In 2014 they launched it as a pilot project in Bački Monoštor together with the internationally renowend opera singer Marijana Mijanović as musical coach. The result was so overwhelmingly positive that they scheduled another round, this time in Belgrade and in co-production with the Belgrade Baroque Academy, with a professionally staged opera production at the Madlenianum Belgrade following the workshops.

Catching Fire – Haendel on the Road
Bački Monoštor 2014

Based on the experience of the previous camps, we expanded the creative work by introducing the educational opera project Catching Fire – Haendel on the Road. Young people and professional musicians were challenged to access their own emotional spaces through the music of Georg Frideric Handel. Through this individual and contemporary approach, the participants created a new and unique way of performing opera. The result was publicly presented at the Bodrog Fest in Bački Monoštor.

Catching Fire
Belgrade 2015

Workshop in cooperation with the New Belgrade Opera: preparation of the production of „Orlando“ by George Frideric Handel by opera director Alvaro Schoeck with animated video projections by Michaela Müller.