Haitian Orchestra Institute
What is the Haitian Orchestra Institute?
An extraordinary addition to the fabric of musical life in Haiti, The Haitian Orchestra Institute (HOI) enables over 100 of Haiti’s most accomplished musicians and teachers to receive intensive orchestral and instrumental training from Musicians of the Utah Symphony (MOTUS) and Utah Symphony Music Director Thierry Fischer.
Haitian Orchestra Institute 2023
After a long hiatus, the Haitian Orchestra Institute is back and, along with our colleagues in Haiti and around the world, we couldn't be happier!
Created as a partnership between BLUME Haiti and the Musicians of the Utah Symphony in 2017, the HOI returned to Cap Haitian in the spring of 2023 - at last!
With sessions for full orchestra in 2017 and 2018, auditions held in 2019 and 2020, a chamber music/chamber orchestra Institute held in the summer of 2022, and the full orchestra edition in 2023, the HOI has already had a significant impact on the level of classical music in the country.
Selected by audition and having the opportunity to work closely with the expert players of the Utah symphony has been a game changer in so many ways for musicians across the country. Because many of the participants also teach, the ripple effect is widespread.
As part of the official launch of the Fine Arts Museum of Cap Haitian (BOZAR), and of the 2023 Haitian Orchestra Institute, BLUME Haiti, CEMUCHCA, and the Musicians of the Utah Symphony, joined in partnership with BOZAR to present a week-long Celebration of Haitian Arts: From Painting to Music .
Utah Symphony musicians, who volunteer their time to work with young Haitian musicians, come to Haiti during their one relief week from January to June and they are the mainstay of this program. They performed several times during the week and coached their young Haitian colleagues every day.
Given all that happened in Haiti in 2023 with the capital of Port-au-Prince 80% in the control of warring gangs, with kidnappings and violence a daily occurrence, culture, music and the arts can be potent tools of resistance and instruments of hope.
In a country with few outlets for young people, music provides options and pathways to success. We are thrilled to join our colleagues in Haiti and the United States to bring back this remarkable event!
BLUME Haiti’s Executive Director Janet Anthony blogged while she was in Haiti in the spring of 2023 - take a look!
HOI 2023 by the numbers
The orchestra itself was drawn from musicians throughout Haiti:
182 people from 8 of 10 departments indicated an interest in auditioning for the HOI
143 auditioned either in person or by video
83 were accepted
21 music schools were represented
6 departments were represented
BLUME Haiti, in partnership with MOTUS, created the HOI in 2017 to act as a conduit between the highest-level music training traditions abroad and some of the most accomplished classically trained musicians in Haiti. Because many of the participants in the Haitian Orchestra Institute are teachers in their respective communities, their experience at the HOI creates an extraordinary ripple effect and has already had a pronounced impact on the study of classical music in Haiti.
Through the network of schools, teachers and students that BLUME Haiti serves, and after holding auditions throughout the country, we identify the most capable and talented musicians from across Haiti who are then invited to participate in the HOI, where the program is entirely free to all participants (including travel, room and board). As a major American orchestra, the musicians of the Utah Symphony are highly trained professionals with exactly the skill set ideal for this project. All collaborating partners believe that involvement in the arts makes life better, and that music has as much place in a rural village as in a thriving cultural center.
Thanks to the HOI, participants have the opportunity to meet with like-minded peers to work in sectionals, lessons, masterclasses and rehearsals with the seasoned professionals of the Utah Symphony and, of course, to present their work to the public in what is always an exhilarating final concert featuring International and Haitian compositions. During this intense week of study, strong bonds are formed between the participants and their teachers and amongst the Haitian musicians themselves. For the young musicians, in addition to giving them all something to be incredibly proud of, this transformative experience provides intellectual, spiritual and emotional sustenance for the entire year.
HOI Leadership
Thierry Fischer, Conductor
Swiss Conductor Thierry Fischer has served as Music Director of the Utah Symphony since 2009, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Seoul Philharmonic since January 2017. He also appears regularly as guest conductor with many leading orchestras throughout the world.
Maestro Fischer has embraced the mission of the Haitian Orchestra Institute since its inception in 2017 and has conducted concerts in Jacmel and Cap-Haïtien. He considers this educational outreach a long-term project and is fully committed to continue conducting and inspiring the talented and dedicated music students of the HOI.
In a 2018 op-ed piece in USA Today, Maestro Fischer wrote, “I am so proud of the musicians of the Utah Symphony for bringing us there (to Haiti) in the first place. We are an orchestra — just one American organization, committed to both our work in America and in developing countries like Haiti, and to the notion of sharing what sounds can bring. We hope to inspire our leaders through our actions.”
Maestro Fischer was born in Zambia to Swiss parents. He began his musical career as Principal Flute in Hamburg and at the Zurich Opera, where he studied scores with Nikolaus Harnoncourt. His conducting career began while in his 30s, conducting his first concerts with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, where he was principal flute under Claudio Abbado.
Co-Directors
John Eckstein and Yuki MacQueen, Utah Symphony musicians, and Janet Anthony, Executive Director of BLUME Haiti,
are Co-Founders of and serve as Co-Directors of the Haitian Orchestra Institute.
John Eckstein
Yuki MacQueen
Janet Anthony
Ms. MacQueen and Mr. Eckstein are members of the Utah Symphony and graduates of the Curtis Institute, Juilliard School, and Eastman School of Music.
Together with their Utah Symphony colleagues, it is their great pleasure to provide this special opportunity for the talented young musicians of Haiti. In addition to their performing careers, Ms. MacQueen and Mr. Eckstein are on the teaching faculties of Westminster College and the University of Utah respectively.
BLUME Haiti’s Executive Director, Janet Anthony, made her first trip to Haiti, to teach at the Holy Trinity Music School summer music camp, was in 1996 and she has returned every year since to work with young musicians across the country. The first holder of the George and Marjorie Olsen Chandler Professorship in Music, Ms. Anthony has recently retired after 34 years as the cello professor at Lawrence University. Over the years, she brought more than seventy Lawrence University students and faculty colleagues to Haiti to teach in some of the many music programs with which she has been involved. She has also enabled the travel of a number of key Haitian music teachers and students to the United States for short-term professional development.
Thanks to the efforts of BLUME Haiti, the Musicians of the Utah Symphony and many others, the Haitian Orchestra Institute has created a cohort of musicians who have the shared experience of working together to achieve an incredibly inspiring result. In a country where so many things are left half finished, where so many things go wrong, this is definitely going right!
Click the button below to find out about previous editions of HOI!