About
The Landesjugendorchester Hamburg (LJO Hamburg) is a self-governing symphony orchestra in the city of Hamburg founded in 1968 as the Hamburg youth orchestra. It is the selection orchestra of the city of Hamburg and performs every year in the Laeiszhalle as part of two work phases. The LJO Hamburg is one of the oldest regional youth orchestras and is the only self-governing regional youth orchestra in Germany. The orchestra is funded by the Authority for Culture and Media and has been sponsored by the Hamburg State Music Council since 2007.
The State Youth Orchestra of Hamburg was founded in 1968 under the name Hamburger Jugendorchester (HJO) and was initially sponsored by the Office for Youth. At that time it was the only youth orchestra in Hamburg outside the school context. Right from the start, the focus was on the concept of an orchestra that manages itself. The sponsorship by the youth authority makes it clear that the orchestra wanted to set a clear focus on youth care in the form of self-administration in addition to artistic support. Herbert Bruhn was the first conductor to lead the orchestra, who together with Matthias Rieger played a key role in its founding. Wilhelm Brückner-Rüggeberg acted as a mentor for the orchestra.
In 1983 the sponsorship changed to the Hamburg cultural authority. At that time, the orchestra regularly worked on programs in three phases a year and carried out various collaborations with choirs and the Hamburg University of Music. Between 1989 and 1995 the Hamburg Youth Orchestra played regularly at the Hamburg Music Festival.
In 2005 the orchestra was renamed the State Youth Orchestra Hamburg. This was intended to emphasize the status of the orchestra as the selection orchestra of the city of Hamburg.
The orchestra has been sponsored by the Hamburg State Music Council since 2007. In the course of this change, there is also a significant restructuring of the orchestra, which in particular had an impact on the self-administration of the orchestra. However, within the framework of jointly developed rules of procedure, the orchestra was largely able to maintain its self-administration. The rules of procedure were fundamentally revised again in 2018.