About ECHO

The European Concert Hall organisation constitutes a platform for open exchange and for joint thinking on the opportunities, developments and shared challenges central to the lives of concert halls in the 21st century. The ECHO member halls come together to learn from, and be inspired by each other and to initiate ambitious international shared initiatives.

As individual institutions the ECHO halls demonstrate huge variety – both artistically and organisationally – but what unites us is a shared ambition to present the highest quality performances to the widest possible audiences. All of the ECHO halls are producing institutions and demonstrate a high level of artistic integrity presenting a significant level of ‘own productions’ in the performance series we offer.

The ECHO members also stand for a constant reflection on our work and role as concert halls, on our relationships to our buildings, our artists, our audiences, our politics and our society.

ECHO meetings are divided into specialist working groups covering different areas of concert hall life and management. In addition to these internal events, ECHO also organises larger scale seminars open to colleagues from across the wider sector in Europe and beyond.

ECHO Artistic Platform


Directors’ Forum | Education Working Group | Artistic Platform | Marketing Working Group | Seminars

ECHO Directors’ forum
ECHO was created in 1991 on the initiative of a small group of concert hall Directors who wanted to work together in order to strengthen their work both individually and collectively. It became very quickly apparent to those attending the initial meetings that regular exchange was vital. The Directors of all the ECHO halls continue to meet every 6 months, with meetings rotating between member halls. The tradition of mutual support, exchange and friendship which were the founding principles of ECHO very much continue at the heart of the organisation today. See here for upcoming dates.

ECHO Education Working Group
In 2007 an ECHO working group dedicated to Education was established. The activities of the departments for Education, Learning and Participation in our member halls build wider and richer relationships between the work of our halls and new and existing audiences. Education activities take place in all of the ECHO halls and a commitment to Education, Learning and Participation is as much a shared priority or ECHO as it is for our individual member halls. The Education working group provides the ECHO Education Managers and teams with a specialist forum for joint reflection, support and evaluation as well as the development of new ideas and initiatives. See here for upcoming dates.

ECHO Artistic Platform
ECHO has a long and established history of high quality and ambitious joint artistic initiatives and co-productions. ECHO currently organises a regular Artistic forum where the heads of artistic planning of our member halls share projects, collectively explore joint challenges and explore opportunities for collaboration in the artistic sphere. As well collaborations over short term programming and special events, the ECHO Artistic Platform also works on shared commissions as well as the ECHO Rising Stars series. See here for upcoming dates.

ECHO Marketing Working Group
ECHO organises a specialist forum for the Marketing Managers of the member halls to explore trends, exchange best practice and to jointly respond to shard shared challenges.  See here for upcoming dates.

Seminars
ECHO also occasionally organises seminars – open to any colleagues from across Europe’s performing arts sector and beyond– exploring areas crucial to the life and work of 21st century concert halls. See here for the latest news on upcoming seminars. During the period 2010-2015 this series of seminars was supported by the Culture Programme of the European Union.

Seminar The Art of Music Education Vol. III