The Danish Chamber Orchestra () is a

chamber orchestra Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of Musical instrument, instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a Great chamber, palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. It was the Danish National Chamber Orchestra from 1939 to 2014, when it was under the

Danish Broadcasting Corporation DR (), officially the Danish Broadcasting Corporation in English, is a Danish public-service radio and television broadcasting company. Founded in 1925 as a public-service organization, it is Denmark's oldest and largest electronic media enter ...

(DR). Since 2015, it has been funded privately.

History

The roots of the orchestra date back to 1927, with the formation of an orchestra to perform light music at the Hotel Phoenix by Louis Preil. By 1933, (Louis Preil's Dance Orchestra) consisted of 22 musicians and attained great popularity in Denmark via radio transmissions. In 1939, DR then formally established the ( "Danish Radio Entertainment Orchestra") as the national broadcaster's in-house orchestra. It focused on lighter, popular repertoire. Teddy Petersen took over direction of the ensemble in 1943. The repertoire of the orchestra included classical repertoire such as Mozart, to modern musicals and more recently, collaborations with rock groups. During the tenure of chief conductor

Ádám Fischer Ádám Fischer (born 9 September 1949 in Budapest) is a Hungarian conductor. He is the general music director of the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Orchestra, chief conductor of the Danish Chamber Orchestra, and principal conductor of the Düsseldorf ...

, which began in 1999, the orchestra made a number of commercial recordings of symphonies and operas by Mozart. As of 2014, the orchestra numbered 42 performers. In September 2014, DR announced the disbanding of the orchestra, effective 1 January 2015, citing budget cutbacks. Protests at the decision resulted, including objections to the haste of the decision by the DR board of directors, and that the

Minister of Culture A culture minister or a heritage minister is a common cabinet position in governments. The culture minister is typically responsible for cultural policy, which often includes arts policy (direct and indirect support to artists and arts organiza ...

Marianne Jelved Marianne Bruus Jelved (née ''Hirsbro'', born 5 September 1943) is a Danish politician and bureaucrat who is a member of the Folketing for the Danish Social Liberal Party. She was elected into parliament in the 1994 Danish general election and ...

, had authorised the dismantling before the orchestra had the opportunity to present a savings plan to allow it to continue. The orchestra gave its final performance as a DR ensemble on 21 November 2014, with a performance of Beethoven's

Symphony No. 9 Symphony No. 9 most commonly refers to: * Symphony No. 9 (Beethoven) in D minor (Op. 125, ''Choral'') by Ludwig van Beethoven, 1822–24 * Symphony No. 9 (Dvořák) in E minor (Op. 95, B. 178, ''From the New World'') by Antonín Dvořák, 1893 ...

. The musicians of the orchestra then began a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and Alternative Finance, alternative finance, to fund projects "withou ...

campaign to keep the orchestra in existence. Via

Kickstarter Kickstarter, PBC is an American Benefit corporation, public benefit corporation based in Brooklyn, New York City, that maintains a global crowdfunding platform focused on creativity. The company's stated mission is to "help bring creative project ...

, this campaign raised 1,000,000 DKK in funds from private individuals, and several Danish corporations pledged the remaining 2,000,000 DKK. Because of Kickstarter's single-donation limits (50,000 DKK), the orchestra was required to cancel its Kickstarter account, to return those donations, and to request that donors re-submit their donations in cash by 28 February 2015. After ending its affiliation with DR, the orchestra renamed itself the ( "Danish Entertainment Orchestra"), and its English official name dropped the word "national", becoming "Danish Chamber Orchestra". It gave its first concert as a privately funded ensemble on 1 February 2015 at the

Royal Danish Academy of Music The Royal Danish Academy of Music, or Royal Danish Conservatory of Music (), in Copenhagen is the oldest professional institution of musical education in Denmark as well as the largest, with approximately 400 students. It was established in 186 ...

Notes

References

* Tom Service,
Danish National Chamber Orchestra fights cuts by crowdfunding
. ''The Guardian'' (blog entry), 27 January 2015

External links

* {{Authority control Orchestras in Copenhagen Former radio and television orchestras National orchestras DR (broadcaster) Chamber orchestras