Mainz Chamber Orchestra
The Mainz Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1955 by the musicologist , violinist , conductor and university professor Günter Kehr . It is made up of professional orchestra members from various orchestras from all over Germany in a changing line-up and can draw on a pool of around 40 soloists. But young artists are also encouraged and given the opportunity to prove their skills with the chamber orchestra. The size of the number of musicians varies, depending on the pieces to be performed, between eight and twenty-five members.
The orchestra traveled all over the world, especially in the first 30 years of its existence, produced around 150 LPs and CDs and made hundreds of radio recordings for German broadcasters. Under the direction of Günter Kehr, it set standards that have shaped an entire age of the genre. After Günter Kehr's death in 1989 , Volker Müller, deputy director of the Peter Cornelius Conservatory and music advisor for the city of Mainz , took over the leadership of the chamber orchestra on a voluntary basis. If, under Kehr's aegis, he was the sole conductor of the ensemble, Müller renounced this concept and usually had the interpretations worked out under the direction of the concert master . Guest conductors are the rare exception. While in the first decades of the orchestra's existence major tours were made, in recent years it has had to limit its performances within the borders of Germany due to increasingly scarce financial resources. Nevertheless, the mixture of self-promoted young talents and experienced professionals in a trusting cooperation proves to be such a successful concept that in the last few years there have been up to 40 concerts a year and 30 CDs have been recorded that reflect the outstanding qualities of the orchestra.
Unfortunately, however, the end of the orchestra is also emerging, as Volker Müller wants to give up the management of the ensemble for reasons of age and cannot find a successor. 2017 may be the last year of a hugely successful episode in the history of the state capital Mainz and in Rhineland-Palatinate .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ German Cultural Council puts Mainz Chamber Orchestra on the Red List. May 4, 16, accessed on January 4, 2017 (German).
- ↑ Ursula Böhmer: birthday and crisis. SWR2, June 22, 2015, accessed on January 4, 2017 (German).
- ↑ Mainz Chamber Orchestra celebrates its 60th birthday with a ceremony. Wiesbadener Kurier, December 7, 2015, accessed on January 4, 2017 .