SynAmp did not emerge from nothing. It is the direct continuation of a project that came before — one that proved something important: that classical music institutions from the Western Balkans and the European Union could work together as genuine equals, and that the result would be greater than the sum of its parts.
The #synergy project (2021–2024)
#synergy — Sharpening the capacities of the classical music industry in the Western Balkans was a Creative Europe cooperation project that ran from 2021 to 2024. It brought together a core group of the organisations that now form the SynAmp consortium, with the shared aim of strengthening the classical music sector in the Western Balkans through training, research, and cross-border cooperation.
The project built professional networks between composers, performers, cultural managers, and institutions across Montenegro, Serbia, Croatia, Albania, Kosovo*, and partner countries in Western Europe. It established the collaborative methodology, the trust between organisations, and the shared understanding of what is needed — and what is possible — when classical music institutions across borders commit to working together over time.
#synergy demonstrated that this kind of sustained, structured cooperation produces real results: emerging artists gain international exposure they could not access at home; institutions develop lasting professional relationships that outlive individual projects; and the sector as a whole becomes more visible, more interconnected, and more resilient.
From #synergy to SynAmp
SynAmp takes everything #synergy built and significantly expands its scope. Four major additions define the leap:
Multimedia art. Where #synergy focused on classical music in its existing forms, SynAmp commissions eight entirely new works that pair composers with multimedia artists — creating an interdisciplinary format that reflects how contemporary audiences experience art and how contemporary creators want to make it.
New EU partners. SynAmp adds Stiftelsen O/Modernt (Sweden), Le Dimore del Quartetto (Italy), and UMZE Association (Hungary) to the consortium — bringing new networks, new venues, new audiences, and new expertise in contemporary music, chamber performance, and artist development.
Structured capacity building. The Capacity Building Labs are a new, formal training structure for emerging cultural professionals — two full cycles of online webinars, job shadowing, international internships, and the Performing Arts Academy at KotorArt. This turns what was informal learning in #synergy into a transferable, documented programme.
A wider touring circuit. The SynAmp Tour — fifteen concerts in eight cities across nine countries — gives the commissioned works a scale of transnational presentation that #synergy’s concerts could not reach. Every stop includes B2B networking sessions, connecting the project’s artistic outputs with programmers, producers, and festival directors across Europe.
The result is a project that honours what came before while refusing to repeat it. SynAmp is #synergy with more ambition, more partners, more structure — and a clearer idea of what it wants to leave behind.