The Bremer Philharmoniker is the official orchestra of the

Free Hanseatic City of Bremen Bremen (), officially the Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (; ), is the smallest and least populous of Germany's 16 states. It is informally called ('State of Bremen'), although the term is sometimes used in official contexts. The state consists ...

. In addition to the music theatre in the

Theater Bremen Theater Bremen (Bremen Theatre) is a state theatre in Bremen, Germany, with four divisions for opera, straight theater, dance, and student programs. Its venues are located in a city block, connected in architecture and seating up to 1,426 spectato ...

they organise 28 Philharmonic concerts per season, various special, benefit and chamber concerts as well as many projects in the field of

music education Music education is a field of practice in which educators are trained for careers as primary education, elementary or secondary education, secondary music teachers, school or music conservatory ensemble directors. Music education is also a rese ...

. Christian Kötter-Lixfeld is the

artistic director An artistic director is the executive of an arts organization, particularly in a theatre company or dance company, who handles the organization's artistic direction. They are generally a producer and director, but not in the sense of a mogu ...

of the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, and Marko Letonja has been its ''

Generalmusikdirektor A music director, musical director or director of music is a person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert ...

'' since the 2018/2019 season.

History

In 1820 the cathedral organist Wilhelm Friedrich Riem founded the ''Bremen Concert Orchestra''. He was conductor of this orchestra until his death (1857). He was succeeded as conductor by

Carl Martin Reinthaler Carl Martin Reinthaler (13 October 1822 – 13 February 1896) was a German organist, conductor and composer. Alternative spellings include Karl Martin Reinthaler and Carl Martin Rheinthaler. Biography Reinthaler was born in Erfurt. He received ...

. The orchestra was supervised by the ''Verein Bremischer Musikfreunde'', founded in 1863. In 1825 the ''Gesellschaft für Privatkonzerte'' – since 1895 ''Philharmonische Gesellschaft'' – was founded. It organised a ''Philharmonic Choir'' and a ''Concert Orchestra'', as one of the first bourgeois orchestras. The city of Bremen granted subsidies to the orchestra, which was later called the "Philharmonic Orchestra".

Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period (music), Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, oft ...

made his debut as a pianist in 1855. It was his first public appearance with an orchestra. Thirteen years later, the German Requiem was premiered in Bremen under his direction. Even today, the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra still feels a special affinity to Johannes Brahms: His compositions are among the most frequently performed in the repertoire. The inflation that set in as a result of the First World War made it impossible at the beginning of the 1920s to maintain the Philharmonic Orchestra, which had been engaged on a private basis until then, in this form. It was therefore taken over by Bremen as the city orchestra. The Philharmonic Society borrowed the musicians for its concerts. In 1933, the orchestra was renamed ''Staatsorchester''. After the Second World War, the orchestra was renamed the "Bremen Philharmonic State Orchestra". In 2002, the orchestra changed its legal form to a limited liability company (Germany) and was renamed ''Bremer Philharmoniker GmbH''. The shareholders are the orchestra musicians, organised in the Bremer Philharmoniker e.V. (26%), the city of Bremen (52%) and the

(22 %). The company is managed by the

General Music Director A music director, musical director or director of music is a person responsible for the musical aspects of a performance, production, or organization. This would include the artistic director and usually chief conductor of an orchestra or concert ...

and the Intendant. The number of musicians is around 82 (as of 2017). As before, a state subsidy of around 4 million euros (as of 2009) is granted. A supervisory committee chaired by the Senator for Culture balances the various interests.

Conductors

Chief conductors and general music directors * Wilhelm Friedrich Riem 1820–1857 *

1857–1893 * Max Erdmannsdörfer 1893–1895 * Georg Schumann 1896–1899 * Karl Panzner 1899–1909 *

Manfred Gurlitt Manfred Gurlitt (6 September 1890 – 29 April 1972) was a German opera composer and conductor. He studied composition with Engelbert Humperdinck (composer), Engelbert Humperdinck and conducting with Karl Muck. He spent most of his career in Japa ...

1924–1927 *

Ernst Wendel Ernst Wendel (26 March 1876 – 21 May 1938) was a German violinist and conductor. Life Wendel was born in Breslau. For one season in 1896/97 Wendel was concertmaster of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Theodore Thomas. From 1909 to 1935, ...

1909–1935 * Peter Beck 1934–1941 *

Hellmut Schnackenburg Hellmut Schnackenburg (27 September 190215 August 1974) was a German conductor and director of music. Life Born in Halle (Saale), Schnackenburg grew up in Altona where he studied music. At the Cologne Opera he was répétiteur and Kapellmeiste ...

1937–1943 and 1945–1953 *

Paul van Kempen Paul van Kempen (16 May 1893 – 8 December 1955) was a Dutch conductor. Personal life Van Kempen was born in Zoeterwoude, Netherlands. He studied at the Amsterdam conservatory from 1910 to 1913, including composition and conducting with Ju ...

1953–1955 *

Heinz Wallberg Heinz Wallberg (16 March 192329 September 2004) was a German conductor. Wallberg was born in Herringen, Westphalia. He studied trumpet, violin and piano. He helped to support his family with his musical training after his father became unabl ...

1955–1961 *

Hans Walter Kämpfel Hans Walter Kämpfel (22 June 1924 – 22 April 2016) was a German conductor, composer and Generalmusikdirektor in Aachen and Bremen. Life and career Kämpfel was born in near Ingolstadt. After passing his Abitur in 1942 at the Wilhelmsgymn ...

1961–1965 *

Hans Wallat Hans Wallat (18 October 1929 – 11 December 2014) was a German conductor, GMD in Bremen, at the Nationaltheater Mannheim, Theater Dortmund and Deutsche Oper am Rhein. A specialist for the stage works of Richard Wagner, he appeared at the Bayre ...

1965–1970 *

Hermann Michael Hermann Michael (1937–2005) was a German symphonic and opera conductor. He studied piano and cello at the Stuttgart Conservatory and had not formally studied conducting when he audited a master class led by Herbert von Karajan in Berlin i ...

1970–1978 * Peter Schneider 1978–1985 *

Pinchas Steinberg Pinchas Steinberg (; born 13 December 1945) is an Israeli-German conductor and violinist. He is currently the Chief Conductor of the Budapest Philharmonic Orchestra. Early career Steinberg studied violin in the USA under Jascha Heifetz and Jo ...

1985–1989 *

Marcello Viotti Marcello Viotti (29 June 195416 February 2005) was a Swiss classical music conductor, best known for opera. Viotti was born in Vallorbe, in the French-speaking region of Switzerland, to Italian parents. He studied cello, piano and singing at th ...

1989–1993 *

Günter Neuhold Günter Neuhold (born 2 November 1947) is an Austrian conductor. Born in Graz, he attended the Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst Graz and graduated in 1968 with a master's degree. He later studied conducting with Franco Ferrara ...

1995–2002 *

Lawrence Renes Lawrence Renes (born 1970) is a Dutch-Maltese conductor. He studied violin at the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and conducting at the Royal Conservatory of The Hague, from which he graduated ''cum laude'' in 1993. Renes was the first prize wi ...

2002–2006 *

Markus Poschner Markus Poschner (born 1 February 1971) is a German conductor and pianist. Biography Born in Munich, Poschner studied at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich with Hermann Michael. His mentors and supporters included Sir Roger Norri ...

2007–2017 *

Marko Letonja Marko Letonja (born 12 August 1961) is a Slovenian conductor. Biography Letonja studied piano and conducting at the Academy of Music in Ljubljana, where his conducting teachers included Anton Nanut. He continued his conducting studies at the ...

from the 2018–2019 season Other conductors *

Paul Hindemith Paul Hindemith ( ; ; 16 November 189528 December 1963) was a German and American composer, music theorist, teacher, violist and conductor. He founded the Amar Quartet in 1921, touring extensively in Europe. As a composer, he became a major advo ...

Hans von Bülow Freiherr Hans Guido von Bülow (; 8 January 1830 – 12 February 1894) was a German conductor, pianist, and composer of the Romantic era. As one of the most distinguished conductors of the 19th century, his activity was critical for establishi ...

Karl Böhm Karl August Leopold Böhm (28 August 1894 – 14 August 1981) was an Austrian conductor. He was best known for his performances of the music of Mozart, Wagner, and Richard Strauss. Life and career Education Karl Böhm was born in Graz, St ...

Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt (5 May 190028 May 1973) was a German conductor and composer. After studying at several music academies, he worked in German opera houses between 1923 and 1945, first as a répétiteur and then in increasingly senior condu ...

Rudolf Kempe Rudolf Kempe (14 June 1910 – 12 May 1976) was a German conductor. Biography Kempe was born in Dresden, where from the age of fourteen he studied at the Dresden State Opera School. He played oboe in the opera orchestra of Dortmund and ...

, Karl Dammer

Operas and concerts

Each season, the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra performs approximately 175 opera performances at the Theater Bremen in

Theater am Goetheplatz The , also incorrectly known as the , is the main theatre of the city of Bremen in the north of Germany, the main venue of Theater Bremen. Completed in 1913 in the Neoclassical architecture, Neoclassical style, it is located in the cultural distri ...

, 28 Philharmonic concerts at the Bremen Concert House Die Glocke and around 30 special, family and chamber concerts. The special concerts include, for example, benefit concerts for the Christmas charity fundraising campaign, the Bremen Cancer Aid Fund and the as well as concerts within the framework of the Bremen Music Festival, the

European Piano Contest Bremen The European Piano Competition Bremen (German'': Europäischer Klavierwettbewerb Bremen'', also known as the ''Bremer Klavierwettbewerb)'' is an international piano Music competition, competition held every 2 years in Bremen. It was founded in 198 ...

and the International Conductors' Forum of the German Music Council. In their concert series "phil pur", the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra devotes several evenings to the work of a single composer in a Philharmonic concert. Since 2009, the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra has also organised its own festival entitled "phil intensiv". After the first edition focused on Johannes Brahms' four symphonies for four days, Markus Poschner and the orchestra, together with the SWR Big Band, dedicated the second edition to the interplay of composition and improvisation and the encounter between classical music and jazz, symphony orchestra and big band. Richard Wagner's opera "Tristan and Isolde" stood as a concertante performance in 2011 on the festival programme. In addition, there are numerous projects for the promotion of children and young people as well as projects in the "Musikwerkstatt Bremen", founded in 2006. All in all, the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra can be experienced at over 370 events during one season. The core repertoire of the concerts ranges from the

First Viennese School The First Viennese School is a name mostly used to refer to three composers of the Classical period in Western art music in late-18th-century to early-19th-century Vienna: Joseph Haydn, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven. Sometimes, ...

Romanticism Romanticism (also known as the Romantic movement or Romantic era) was an artistic and intellectual movement that originated in Europe towards the end of the 18th century. The purpose of the movement was to advocate for the importance of subjec ...

and

Post-romanticism Post-romanticism or Postromanticism refers to a range of cultural endeavors and attitudes emerging in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, after the period of Romanticism. In literature The period of post-romanticism in poetry is ...

to Classical Modernism and

Neue Musik Neue Musik (English ''new music'', French ''nouvelle musique'') is the collective term for a wealth of different currents in composed Western art music from around 1910 to the present. Its focus is on compositions of 20th century music. It is char ...

. World-class soloists and conductors are continuously engaged, such as

Frank Peter Zimmermann Frank Peter Zimmermann (born 27 February 1965) is a German violinist. Childhood He was born in Duisburg, West Germany, and started playing the violin when he was five years old, giving his first concert with orchestra at the age of 10. Since h ...

Gidon Kremer Gidon Kremer (; born 27 February 1947) is a Latvian classical violinist, artistic director, and founder of Kremerata Baltica. Life and career Gidon Kremer was born in Riga. His father was Jewish and had survived the Holocaust. His mother had ...

Midori Midori (みどり, ミドリ, , , ) is the Japanese word for "green" and may refer to: Places * Midori, Gunma * Midori-ku, Chiba * Midori-ku, Nagoya * Midori-ku, Sagamihara * Midori-ku, Saitama * Midori-ku, Yokohama People Given name * M ...

Julia Fischer Julia Fischer (born 15 June 1983) is a German classical violinist, violist, and pianist.Julian Rachlin Julian Rachlin (born 8 December 1974) is a Lithuanian-born violinist, violist and conductor. Biography Born in Vilnius to a Jewish family, he emigrated in 1978 with his musician parents to Austria. In 1983, he entered the Konservatorium Wien an ...

Rudolf Buchbinder Rudolf Buchbinder (born 1 December 1946, Litoměřice, Czechoslovakia) is an Austrian classical pianist. Biography Buchbinder studied with Bruno Seidlhofer at the Vienna Academy of Music. In 1965, he made a tour of North and South Americas. In ...

, Boris Beresowski,

Sabine Meyer Sabine Meyer (born 30 March 1959) is a German classical clarinetist. Biography Born in Crailsheim, Baden-Württemberg, Meyer began playing the clarinet at an early age. Her first teacher was her father, also a clarinetist. She studied with Otto ...

Christopher Hogwood Christopher Jarvis Haley Hogwood (10 September 194124 September 2014) was an English Conducting, conductor, harpsichordist, and Musicology, musicologist. Founder of the early music ensemble the Academy of Ancient Music, he was an authority on h ...

Mario Venzago Mario Venzago (born 1948) is a Swiss conductor. Biography Venzago began piano studies at age five. He studied at the conservatory and the university in Zurich. He later studied conducting with Hans Swarowsky in Vienna. His other positions h ...

and

Heinz Holliger Heinz Robert Holliger (born 21 May 1939) is a Swiss composer, virtuoso oboist, and conductor. Celebrated for his versatility and technique, Holliger is among the most prominent oboists of his generation. His repertoire includes Baroque and Clas ...

Music mediation

The Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra accompanies more than 10,000 children and young people every year with a wide variety of events in and outside school. A particularly ambitious project within

is the "Musikwerkstatt Bremen", which opened in autumn 2006. The "Musikwerkstatt Bremen" was created in cooperation with the State Institute for Schools and pursues the goal of actively bringing children and adults into contact with music through personal experience. In the "Musikwerkstatt", one can gain insights into the world of a symphony orchestra, but above all try out all the instruments of an orchestra under pedagogical guidance. Several activities were awarded prizes: * In October 2005, ''

the Carnival of the Animals ''The Carnival of the Animals'' () is a humorous musical suite of 14 movements, including " The Swan", by the French composer Camille Saint-Saëns. About 25 minutes in duration, it was written for private performance by two pianos and chambe ...

'' project was awarded the ''Inventio 2005'' by the

Deutscher Musikrat The (DMR, ''German Music Council''; ) is an umbrella organization for music associations and the 16 music councils of the German federal states.musikrat.deÜberblick über Organisationsstruktur des DMR(retrieved on 10 May 2019) It represents over ...

and the ''Yamaha Children and Youth Foundation''. * In December 2006, the ''Musikwerkstatt Bremen'' was awarded and named a "Landmark in the Land of Ideas" by the initiative and the Deutsche Bank. * Prize winner of the competition "Children to Olympus – Schools cooperate with culture" 2007. * Awarded the school project ''Fairies and Trolls'', in cooperation with the Landesinstitut für Schule, the primary school and the Förderzentrum . * Winner of the competition ''Ideen machen Schule'' with the project ''Ob im Weltraum jemand wohnt'', in cooperation with the Landesinstitut für Schule and the Bürgermeister-Smidt-Schule.

Philharmonic Society Bremen

In 1825, the association ''Society for Private Concerts'' was founded. He hoped to win capable musicians for Bremen and strove to form a good orchestra and choir. In the beginning the success was moderate, but then a steady ''concert orchestra'' with professional and amateur musicians was formed. The Philharmonic Choir was also formed. After the death of the cathedral cantor and conductor of the Bremen Singakademie Wilhelm Friedrich Riem (1779–1857) there was a common conductor of both choirs since 1858:

. After Riem left the choir, both choirs were united under the direction of Max Erdmannsdörfer in 1892 to form the joint ''Philharmonic Choir''. In 1895 the ''Gesellschaft für Privatkonzerte'' became the ''Philharmonische Gesellschaft''. It was involved in Bremen's musical life on a voluntary basis and made a significant contribution to its development and diversity. Music lovers, sponsors and companies support the society. However, it was not in a position to maintain an orchestra of professional musicians in the long term and so it had to borrow musicians from the city orchestra or the state orchestra for its concerts. Since 2001, Barbara Grobien has been chairwoman of the society. In 2002, on the initiative of the company, the ''Bremer Philharmoniker GmbH'' was founded, in which the company holds a 26% share (see also above). It left the Philharmonic concerts in the Glocke to the GmbH, but continues to organise chamber concerts. The Philharmonic Society works together with the ''Musikfest Bremen'' to ensure high quality. Through a cooperation with

Bremen University The University of Bremen () is a public university in Bremen, Germany, with approximately 18,400 students from 117 countries. Its 12 faculties offer more than 100 degree programs. The University of Bremen has been among the top 50 European rese ...

, a joint seminar is held to introduce the world of European art music.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control German symphony orchestras 1820 establishments in the German Confederation Orchestras in Bremen (city)