The official announcement posted on his personal website focuses on the practical aspects of the enterprise: “Theodoros Currentzis presents his new international project Utopia,” the headline of the corresponding announcement reads, followed by information about the new orchestra with 112 musicians from 28 countries, united by a common the search for “optimal sound and the true spirit of a piece of music”.

In a personal statement, Theodoros Currentzis describes his vision for Utopia, while touching on something interesting: “It is an attempt to leave behind the framework of respectable institutions,” writes, among other things, the main Greek musician: “who have a blessing, but and the curse of creating what could be described as a specific, standardized, international sound. We are entering a more experimental realm of finding the perfect sound along with experienced musicians who are looking for it.”

However, the new orchestra under the artistic direction of Theodoros Currentzis, who has led the famous MusicAeterna since 2004, could not be ignored by the international media in non-artistic terms. The New York Times has already seen the creation of the Utopia Orchestra as a step dictated by the pressure that the conductor is under after the Russian invasion of Ukraine to distance himself from the influence of the Russian state.

Naturalized Russian

The Greek conductor has been the target of a backlash against his relationship with the Russian state following the invasion of Ukraine.

How close is Teodoros Currentzis – after all, he studied in St. Petersburg and naturalized as a Russian since 2014 – with the institutions of Putin’s Russia? Close enough to cause backlash in the West towards him and MusicAeterna. Because his orchestra – his first orchestra, to be exact – is mainly financed by VTB Bank, most of which is owned by the Russian state and therefore has been under Western sanctions since the beginning of the war in Ukraine. In addition, on the board of directors of the MusicAeterna foundation, you will find people who are reported to work closely with Putin.

Gazprom also sponsored a recent trip through Russia. Currentzis and MusicAeterna have caused a lot of backlash for all of the above, most recently for their participation in this year’s Salzburg Classical Music Festival – festival director Markus Hinderhäuser spoke out in favor of Currentzis, although they canceled their appearances at other events.

Perhaps for these reasons, the official announcement on his personal website for Utopia stated (without mentioning the future of MusicAeterna) that it was sponsored by European institutions and art mothers, including the Kunst & Kultur DM Foundation. It is also characteristic that Utopia does not have an official headquarters.

However, she has a schedule: in October she will present works by Stravinsky and Ravel at the Luxembourg Philharmonic (where she rehearses), at the Laeiszhalle in Hamburg, at the Konzerthaus in Vienna and at the Berlin Philharmonic. The next season he will also undertake two tours as well as a series of concerts where he will perform Mahler’s Third Symphony. Not bad, you might say. In fact, the above sums up pretty well, as the German newspaper Die Welt put it in a related article, “how Theodoros Currentzis wants to reclaim the West.”