A desire to establish the first cross-border professional symphony orchestra in the region of the former Yugoslavia gave rise to the No Borders Orchestra (NBO), a project that invites a new form of communication. The No Borders Orchestra is a symphonic ensemble in which excellent musicians from the republics of the former common country have come together with a common goal: to create a completely new concert experience that promotes positive change in the spirit of reconciliation and creative cooperation. The NBO supports connectivity, interculturality, democracy and openness and is a platform for overcoming nationalism, racism, xenophobia, homophobia and the bloody tradition of the Balkans. The No Borders Orchestra asks: “What is the artistic and social meaning of the symphony orchestra in the twenty-first century?” and offers possible answers through its operation. The orchestra performed for the first time at the opening concert of the Belgrade Music Festival (BEMUS) in October 2012, where the head of the orchestra, conductor Premil Petrović, received an award from the city of Belgrade. In March 2013, the NBO performed in Novi Sad and Belgrade, and then embarked on several concert tours. It has won rave reviews for its performances at Wiener Festwochen, Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, Festival d’Automne in Paris and Operadagen in Rotterdam, and has appeared at festivals in Marseille, Brisbane, Gwangju and Macao, as well as at leading festivals in the Balkans. The orchestra has performed in prestigious halls in London (Barbican), Hamburg, Berlin, Athens, Lisbon, Toulouse and Strasbourg. The NBO’s projects are supported by many commissioners of the European Union and UNESCO, as well as by representatives of the Berlin Philharmonic and other important cultural institutions and festivals in the Balkan region.
The NBO has signed an exclusive recording contract with Universal Music and released their first album, The Opening, in 2015 on their Deutsche Grammophon label.
