Andreas Richter takes over the General Management of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra

Andreas Richter, who guided the affairs of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester with great success from 2004 to 2007, has a rich history of experience in the arts: After completing his studies in musicology, music education, and protestant theology, he worked as a free-lance journalist and dramaturge for institutions such as the Berliner Tagesspiegel and the Deutsche Oper Berlin. In 1996, he moved to the Komische Oper Berlin, where he first worked as personal assistant to the Intendant and later as head of the communications department. Educational ventures have also played more than a minor role in his career: starting in 1998, he taught as a guest lecturer at both the former Hochschule der Künste and the Academy of Music Hanns Eisler Berlin, and he later took on a guest professorship at the University of the Arts Berlin in the masters program in cultural journalism. His work has been published in various journals and program books, including “Dreiklang”, the prize-winning book for school music instruction.

At the beginning of March, Andreas Richter will become Intendant and General Manager of the Mahler Cham-ber Orchestra and will, alongside music director Daniel Harding, play a decisive role in the development of the ensemble. The MCO, Daniel Harding, and Andreas Richter look forward to their collaboration and to an event-ful and artistically promising future together.

The Mahler Chamber Orchestra celebrates its 10th anniversary in 2007. The orchestra was founded in 1997 on the initiative of Claudio Abbado and a group of musicians from the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. The combined principles of artistic curiosity and the broadest possible spectrum of repertoire, both at the highest possible musical level, guided the ambitious ensemble in its founding and continue to shape its work today. The first concert of the MCO took place on 21 November 1997 in Landshut. MCO music director Daniel Harding will conduct the anniversary concert on 31 October in Ferrara.

The Mahler Chamber Orchestra was founded in 1997 on the initiative of Claudio Abbado. The ensemble’s repertoire reaches from baroque to contemporary and includes everything from chamber music to symphonic programming, from operatic standards to world premieres. Daniel Harding became music director in summer 2003 and conducts a large percentage of the orchestra’s 70-80 concerts and opera performances each year. Projects with noted specialists in particular techniques or repertoire also make up an important element of the orchestra’s program, strengthening its reputation as a multi-faceted ensemble.

The core of the MCO is made up of approximately 50 musicians of 19 different nationalities. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra is orchestra-in-residence in Aix-en-Provence, Ferrara, Toblach, Landshut, and at the Mozartwoche Salzburg. Long-term contracts also connect the orchestra to the Sintonie Festival in Torino and the Lucerne Festival. In its nine years, the MCO has recorded several prize-winning CDs. Discs recorded under the direction of Daniel Harding include among others: Don Giovanni and The Turn of the Screw (recipient of several awards, including the Choc de l’ année 2002). The live recording of Beethoven’s 2nd and 3rd piano concertos with Claudio Abbado and Martha Argerich was honoured with a Grammy Award.

Andrea Kerner
Public Relations
Mahler Chamber Orchestra e.V.
Heinrich-Roller-Str. 16-17
10405 Berlin
Phone 0049 30 41 71 79 21
Fax 0049 30 41 71 79 29
a.kerner@mahler-chamber.de
www.mahler-chamber.de

This release was published on openPR.