Bern Chamber Orchestra

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The Bern Chamber Orchestra (BKO) is a professional chamber orchestra based in Bern . Since it was founded in 1938, it has cultivated the classical chamber orchestra literature , and it also focuses on the performance and communication of new Swiss music.

The BKO played numerous world premieres, for example by Willy Burkhard , Peter Mieg , Albert Moeschinger and Sándor Veress . The soloists who have played with the BKO include Yehudi Menuhin , Ida Haendel and Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau . In 1940 the ensemble was named Bern Chamber Orchestra .

history

The orchestra was founded by music-interested sponsors from around the Bern teachers' college. The orchestra initially consisted of teachers, students and alumni of the seminar, all of them amateur musicians. The orchestra leader was Hermann Müller , who led the ensemble for the next 25 years. The professional musicians of the Zurbrügg Quartet were hired to lead the orchestra . The orchestra, which was initially conceived as a pure string orchestra, was soon expanded to include winds. The so-called "Mannheim occupation" was established, i. H. In addition to around 20 strings, the wind section consists of double-staffed woodwinds and horns.

Philippe Bach (* 1974) has been director of the Bern Chamber Orchestra since 2012, which today consists only of professional musicians. In addition to the repertoire from the baroque to the modern, the orchestra attaches great importance to maintaining contemporary music. So far around 70 world premieres and over 200 Bernese or Swiss premieres have been realized.

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