Orchestra Academy

The Orchestra Academy is offering young people studying at Belgian conservatories and music colleges the opportunity to supplement their courses with professional experience, thereby building a bridge to the reality of the working world. 

The Orchestra Academy offers students a double orchestral work placement – with the La Monnaie Symphony Orchestra and with the Belgian National Orchestra –, allowing them to take part in an opera or in a symphonic production in both institutions with the benefit of individual guidance.   

Students can also take part in chamber music projects with musicians from the orchestra, exclusive masterclasses with major soloists, workshops (stress management, audition preparation, etc.), engagements, special projects, etc. The young musicians can also attend all the La Monnaie performances and all the Belgian National Orchestra concerts.

The selection process is by audition in the spring of the previous academic year, with a jury made up of musicians from both orchestras. Only full-time students enrolled at a Belgian conservatory or music college in the year of their anticipated participation are eligible.  

Applications for the auditions must be made through the student’s college and not individually. In the first instance, candidates will be selected by means of an internal audition at their conservatory. Then a maximum of 25 students (10 string players and 15 wind players, brass players, harpists, percussionists) per conservatory will be able to take part in the auditions, which are organized in turn at La Monnaie and the Belgian National Orchestra. Students who pass the auditions will be a member of the Orchestra Academy for one season.

Students participating in the Orchestra Academy are given credits, which are recognized by their college. If a student’s experience is particularly positive, they may be taken on as a temporary replacement once they have completed their work placement in the orchestra.   

Members of the Orchestra Academy 2024-25

• Zoriana Myliavska - violin
  Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles 
• Christina Tsakalidou - violin
  Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel
• Chenyang Yang – violin
  Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel
• Clara Doise - viola
  Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles
• Joana Revez Mendonça - viola
  Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel 
• Tiantong Deng - cello
  Conservatoire royal de Mons
• Ombeline Gasnier - cello
  Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles
• Jiayi Zhao – double bass
  Conservatoire royal de Liège
• Arianna Groppi - flute
  Conservatoire royal de Mons
• Irene García Sevillano - clarinet
  Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel
• Javier Navarro Elizari- trompet
  Koninklijk Conservatorium Antwerpen 
• Virginia Pestugia- harp
  Conservatoire royal de Bruxelles 
• Elena Antropovski- harp
  Koninklijk Conservatorium Brussel

Coach En’Man’Do & auditioning: Yves Cortvrint

Music Director – Alain Altinoglu
Artistic Director – Ouri Bronchti