About us
ROBERT SCHUMANN PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
The first Chemnitz municipal orchestra was established in 1833. The ancient Municipal Music Director, Wilhelm-August Mejo, succeeded in forming an orchestra of a remarkable artistic level. Guest conductors such as Richard Strauss, Fritz Busch, Otto Klemperer, Bruno Walter, Erich Kleiber, Arthur Nikisch, Arnold Schönberg, Max Reger and Paul Hindemith did the orchestra the honour. The famous Rudolf Kempe was its first chief conductor after World War II. In the nearly 20 years long and successful Dieter-Gerhardt Worm period the orchestra was awarded the honourable name “Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra” in 1983. Since 2007 the musical director Frank Beermann focussed on CD productions which caused a stir and awarded prizes such as the ECHO Klassik. Since 2017/2018 Guillermo García Calvo leads the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra.
Within the last years internationally renowned guest conductors came to Chemnitz such as Hermann Bäumer, Stefan Blunier, Peter Eötvös, Lawrence Foster, Peter Gülke, Leopold Hager, Pedro Halffter, Michail Jurowski and Stefan Soltesz. They worked with soloists such as Bernd Glemser, Veronika Eberle, Xavier de Maistre, Alban Gerhardt, Boris Giltburg, Herbert Schuch, Martin Stadtfeld, Jan Vogler, Jörg Widmann and the Kolsimcha Ensemble amongst others.
Orchestra tours led to important concert halls, promoters and festivals in New York, Venice, Salonika, Rome, Salzburg, Linz, several places in Spain, Zurich, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf, Cologne, Munich, Berlin, Dresden and Neuschwanstein.
Besides their duty to perform operas, operettas, musicals and ballets, the orchestra appears in symphony concerts, chamber concerts, pupil’s concerts amongst many others.