Conductor Teodor Currentzis, who has been criticized since the beginning of the war in Ukraine for his ties to a state-owned bank in Russia, announced Monday that he would form a new international ensemble with the support of donors outside Russia.
The ensemble, which will be called Utopia, will, according to a statement, bring together 112 musicians from 28 countries, including many soloists and protagonists in renowned orchestras, for a European tour starting this fall and running until 2023. The group will depend on ticket sales and donations from European benefactors to fund its operations, the statement said.
Currentzis, who has made a career defying convention in classical music, said he wanted the new group to shake up the traditional model of orchestras, in which musicians play together in the same concert halls for years. He said in a statement that the new group “would leave behind the framework of respectable institutions that, while blessed, may also be doomed to create what could be described as a certain standardized international sound.”
“We are entering a more experimental field of searching for the perfect sound with master musicians who all crave it,” he added.
The statement did not discuss Currentzis’ future with his longtime ensemble, MusicAeterna, which has caught fire for its reliance on VTB Bank, a Russian state institution sanctioned by the United States and other countries, but remains the ensemble’s title sponsor. Representatives from Currentzis and MusicAeterna did not respond to requests for comment Monday.
The statement did not detail Utopia’s European benefactors, other than to include a private foundation called Kunst und Kultur DM.
Currentzis has been under pressure in recent months to get funding outside of Russia for MusicAeterna, which he founded in Siberia in 2004. He has also been criticized for remaining silent about the war and working with associates of President Vladimir V. sits on the board of the MusicAeterna foundation. Several of the ensemble’s commissions have been canceled or postponed since the start of the war due to concerns about the ensemble’s benefactors.
Still, MusicAeterna has made progress with performances in Russia and abroad. In recent days, Currentzis, who was born in Athens but was granted Russian citizenship by Putin in 2014, has been leading sold-out performances at Austria’s prestigious Salzburg Festival.
Some of his artistic partners on Monday praised his decision to form Utopia.
Matthias Naske, the artistic director of the Vienna Konzerthaus, who has said he will not hire MusicAeterna until it obtains independent funding, called Utopia a significant achievement. The new group will perform in the concert hall in October, during a tour with stops in Luxembourg and Germany.
“I am grateful to Teodor Currentzis for his commitment and look forward to many meetings with his new project in the interest of cultural life in Vienna,” Naske said in a statement.