Chamber Orchestra of Europe

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe is a symphony orchestra. It was founded in 1981 and has 50 members from 15 different countries. The management of the orchestra has its headquarters in London. The orchestra musicians themselves but to travel to rehearsals and concerts from their home countries, because the orchestra is not a full-time institution, but operates on a project basis and has no permanent location. At the concert halls in which the Chamber Orchestra of Europe is likely to hear include the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, the Cologne Philharmonie and the Cité de la musique in Paris. In addition, the orchestra performs regularly at the Festival in Berlin and Salzburg, at the Musikfest Bremen and at styriarte in Graz. In the period in which the Chamber Orchestra of Europe is not active, playing many of his musicians in chamber music ensembles.

History

The orchestra was written in 1981 when some of the musicians of the European Community Youth Orchestra ( ECYO ) had reached the prescribed age limit for this orchestra of 23. Since they had the desire to continue making music together, the plan was to establish a new, professional chamber orchestra. The former music director of the ECYO, Claudio Abbado, said his support for the project and served as artistic director of the newly founded orchestra. The first European tour of the Orchestra under Abbado gave the Chamber Orchestra of Europe attention, which was further increased by record awards for recordings of works by Rossini and Schubert under Abbado.

Besides Abbado, the orchestra maintains a particularly close relationship with the Austrian conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who is like his wife Alice also an honorary member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. With Harnoncourt, the orchestra has, inter alia, the nine symphonies of Ludwig van Beethoven played. The CD was awarded with numerous international recording prizes.