The Stories
Hit the road, Luxembourg Philharmonic!
The Stories
Hit the road, Luxembourg Philharmonic!
Touring legendary concert halls in exotic cities sounds like a dream. What cogs are working behind the scenes to make a tour work? Turns out it involves a lot of paperwork, visas, reserve musicians, carefully trimmed bus schedules and quick thinking when 25 pieces of luggage go missing. Here’s what it takes to send a 100-piece orchestra around the world. Besides performing in its home nest of the Grand Auditorium, the Luxembourg Philharmonic is receiving many requests to appear abroad. Several times a year, the orchestra and its entourage embark on a trip across Europe and other continents. It just returned from a one-week tour in South Korea and Taiwan, with dates in Seoul, Yongin, Tongyeong, Taichung and Taipei. These performances on international stages not only put Luxembourg on the cultural map and showcase the Philharmonie’s high level as an orchestra, but they also strengthen the bond between the musicians. These personal connections lead to even richer musicality on stage.
Scaling up at home first
Part of the core entourage around the musicians is Patrick Coljon, Head of Orchestra, who is responsible for the musicians. He solves problems for colleagues, answers questions, and acts as a representative. He has been with the Luxembourg Philharmonic since 1995, back when it was still in private ownership and named RTL Grand Symphony Orchestra. He played the French horn for 21 years before stepping into his current role, which makes him something of a living archive of the orchestra's evolution. «It was always my dream to enter an orchestra,» he says. But the level and structure then was very different: rehearsals took place at Villa Louvigny, the old home of Radio Luxembourg, with performances at the Conservatoire and the Grand Théâtre. There was already some international touring taking place, but on a much smaller scale: «I remember stepping inside a concert hall abroad, in Amsterdam or Vienna, and thinking: wow, this is fantastic.» The opening of the Philharmonie in 2005 changed everything: «Before, to see big names, you had to go to Paris, Cologne or Brussels. Then suddenly, the level we were attracting was super high. It brought competition into the country from outside. That is very good for the dynamic.» The orchestra grew from 60 or 70 musicians to 100, and its reputation flourished on the international stage. «You’re performing amongst the best. Yesterday the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra played here, today it’s the Luxembourg Philharmonic. The expectations are high. Our audience will compare.»
Paperwork, schedules and reserve musicians
A tour like South Korea and Taiwan often gets booked more than a year in advance by the artistic department, which settles the programme and format well ahead of time. From there, the production team takes over, starting the paperwork several months before departure: checking visas, verifying passport expiry dates, and carefully counting who is travelling and who is on reserve. Catherine Gaul, Senior Manager Orchestra Personnel and Touring, goes into every detail of this process. She stays in close contact with Patrick Coljon to establish the size of the travel party before she can move ahead with travel arrangements. There are 18 first violinists in the orchestra, for instance, but a tour might only call for 14 – so who goes on reserve, and who stays home? A great deal of risk assessment goes into these decisions: Should reserve musicians travel with the orchestra in case replacements are needed, or can they stay behind? Do they join all the rehearsals? And what happens if a musician is suddenly required at short notice?
With so many people on the move, the unexpected is never far away. Like the time someone left their passport on the plane while the orchestra was already checked into the hotel. Or when 25 suitcases didn't arrive in Spain, and the entourage was moving on to the next city the following morning. A particularly difficult period was the pandemic. The Luxembourg Philharmonic was on tour in Cologne when positive Coronavirus tests started appearing the night before travelling to Tenerife and Grand Canaria – including among an orchestra soloist. The production team had to move mountains to make the concerts happen, as Patrick Coljon recalls: «I thought: we have a concert in two hours. Where do we find a soloist? We began calling orchestras in and around Cologne. Then more musicians fell ill en route to Spain, and the production team was on the phone to musicians based in Spain, asking them to step in on the Canary Islands with no rehearsals, just for the concert. It was an extreme time, of course. But even now, if we bring one first trumpet and one second trumpet and someone gets injured, that's it. They can't play.»
For Filippo Riccardo Biuso, clarinettist with the orchestra, that same tour to the Canary Islands – the one that put the production team through its paces – was his first with the Luxembourg Philharmonic and his favourite so far. Perhaps that’s what precisely defines a strong management and production team: solving problems behind the scenes so that the musicians can focus on preparing their performance. Catherine Gaul knows that the problem-solving never really stops. «There’s always something to deal with, big or small. You’re right at the centre of it all. It feels great when everything runs smoothly, when the orchestra and the musicians are happy with how it all went.»
Travelling with delicate instruments
The most important working tool for a musician is their instrument. A clarinet is easy enough to carry by bus or train, but how does a double bass find its way to South Korea? Luckily, one of the Luxembourg Philharmonic's sponsors is Cargolux, one of the largest cargo airlines in the world, which can fly instruments and equipment out to tour cities in advance when needed. If an instrument is too big or too expensive to ship to a concert hall, renting a local one can be a better alternative. «It is the job of my colleague Christophe [Galeota, Project Manager, ed.] to ask every musician whether they have a spare instrument, whether they want to carry it onboard or whether we need to rent one.» For the recent tour in South Korea and Taiwan, for example, to sets of double basses were shipped from Luxembourg, one to Korea and one to Taiwan. There’s a lot of thinking ahead to be done for a concert tour!
«We make sure with our travel agency that the airlines will accept our string instruments on the plane,» says Catherine Gaul, which is becoming more difficult with stricter rules over dimensions and cabin space. Because the travel party is so large and efficiency is key, the orchestra might even reserve its own check-in counter at the airport. It's not only the instruments that get shipped ahead, though; some stage outfits travel in advance too, so musicians have less to carry. With everything considered, says Catherine Gaul, it comes down to a «big team effort between musicians, production and technicians.»
Life on tour
Amongst the musicians, touring has its own rhythm that they adapt to – one that is well-oiled but leaves little time for spontaneity. «We have a strict tour plan,» Filippo Riccardo Biuso says. «What time is the bus departing, what flight we're on, which hotel, when is the rehearsal, when is lunch.» Any last-minute changes to the schedule are communicated on a scheduling whiteboard at the hotel or venue by Catherine Gaul and her team – that said, if the orchestra is spread across four different hotels, communication can become a lot trickier!
While there is a lot to see in the tour cities, many musicians use their spare time to go over their parts and prepare for the performance, explains Filippo Riccardo Biuso: «If you walk around all day you're quite tired before the concert, so we avoid that. The travel days are the only free days.» His essential companions for the journey include «a great book and headphones. This way I can read while also listening to repertoire I need to prepare.»
Before each concert there's a short rehearsal – not to run the programme, but to get acquainted with the acoustics of the room. The production and technical teams from the Philharmonie have to be there at least three hours in advance before the orchestra to familiarise themselves with the hall, set up the stage, prepare the instruments and clothing cases backstage.
The clarinettist thinks about concert halls the way others might think about landscapes: each one distinct, each one with its own character. «Every venue has its little imperfections, but that's what makes it special.» Patrick Coljon shares that fascination. «I particularly like venues that are the size of the Philharmonie. The Het Concertgebouw [in Amsterdam, ed.], to me, is phenomenal. The Musikverein [in Vienna, ed.] is perfect. Those are sizes where, as an audience member, you're looking right in the face of the artist. You still feel that close presence of sound and the artist.» But after working at the Philharmonie for nearly three decades and having seen many venues around the world, he admits one thing: «Our hall is really good. Everything from its infrastructure, acoustics, the overall feeling of the hall. Our level is very high.»
A special bond amongst the orchestra
Patrick Coljon's ability to read the touring dynamic from a musician’s perspective is no accident; twenty-one years as an orchestra member means he understands the people he now looks after from the inside. «I know how musicians function, how they react, when and where they are stressed, how and especially when to talk to a musician – because they have an artistic sensibility. And they know that I know that about them.» The Head of Orchestra underlines that «tours are incredibly important. Here, everyone has their private lives. On tour, we are together full time. We arrive, go to the hotel, have a rehearsal and concert. Next day: breakfast, bus, next city. You are together. It's always the same people.» Being on the road together creates a strong bond and impacts how the orchestra plays together, as Catherine Gaul notices time and time again.
Filippo Riccardo Biuso loves the different stimulants and impressions on the road: «It's a real privilege to play in concert houses that I wouldn't visit as a tourist. These venues, especially their architecture, say a lot about the culture of the people and the city. Also, audiences are different. Some feel safe to cry, or are more responsive, whilst others are more reserved.» One of his favourite touring cities is Vienna. «We played Mahler’s Symphony N° 2 there. Just by walking through the streets and realising that Alma and Gustav Mahler lived there, that they were so engaged in society back then, then seeing the parks and cafes... there is something special in the air. He walked these streets. He had this view. He composed this symphony.»
The cherry on the cake of a good day is if the concert went well, the production was seamless, and everyone is happy, says Catherine Gaul. Despite having dealt with extraordinary circumstances that changed the orchestra’s travel plans (regional conflicts or Iceland’s volcano eruption, for example), the Luxembourg Philharmonic has never missed a single rehearsal or concert. And if there is time after the concerts, musicians and staff might enjoy some spare time in the city. With so many different nationalities and backgrounds in the crew, there’s bound to be a perfect local tour guide in most cities!
Luxembourg in the world
Thanks to its musical evolution over the past decade, the Luxembourg Philharmonic has gained significantly greater international visibility. This trajectory began in particular with the arrival of Gustavo Gimeno in 2015, who led the orchestra into new artistic and geographical territory. In partnership with the record labels PENTATONE and harmonia mundi, the Luxembourg Philharmonic released recordings of works by composers like Bruckner, Shostakovich, Debussy, Mahler and Dutilleux. The latter received both a Diapason d’Or and a Choc de Classica, two of the most prestigious distinctions in the classical recording world. This caught the attention of classical programmers. The Luxembourg Philharmonic also won a Grammy with Angélique Kidjo and Gast Waltzing. «Touring is contributing to the international image of Luxembourg and the orchestra. And we’re getting many requests to play abroad,» says Patrick Coljon.
The Luxembourg Philharmonic is on a European tour before the end of the year, with dates in Cologne, Budapest (our Music Director Martin Rajna’s home), Maribor and Munich. In March 2027, the orchestra heads to Bogotá, Colombia for a three-day performance of Ludwig van Beethoven’s music – promising to be a ta-ta-ta-tantalising ending to a thrilling touring season abroad.
