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About
Founded in 1862 as the Elberfeld Chapel, the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra celebrated its 150th anniversary in 2012. Soloists and conductors such as Clara Schumann, Joseph Joachim, Johannes Brahms and Max Bruch already gave the young orchestra its honor in its early years. Many conductors began their musical career in Wuppertal - including world-famous names such as Hans Knappertsbusch, Erich Kleiber, Otto Klemperer, Hermann von Schmeidel and Hans Weisbach, who gained international renown especially as a Bruckner specialist.
From 2004 to 2016, the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra, which had long since been classified as an A-orchestra, was headed by General Music Director Prof. Toshiyuki Kamioka, who was also appointed to the opera director of the Wuppertal theaters from the 2014/2015 season.
In August 2016, the Brit Julia Jones was appointed music director and took over the direction of the symphony orchestra.
In addition to working as an opera orchestra, the symphony orchestra plays more than 50 concerts per season in its home venue, the historic Stadthalle Wuppertal am Johannisberg. This masterpiece of Art Nouveau - inaugurated in 1900 under the direction of Richard Strauss by the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra - is one of the best concert halls in Europe and has an exceptional acoustics. For a long time, the orchestra has been demonstrating its extraordinary versatility in a wide variety of concert formats and programs, thus shaping and enriching the cultural offerings of the city and the region. Since January 2013 the musicians are part of the Wuppertal stage and symphony orchestra GmbH.
The Wuppertal Ensemble is a regular guest in Germany and abroad. In addition to annual guest appearances in Milan, the orchestra celebrated huge successes in 2007 and 2010 ahead of sold-out venues in major cities in Japan. In August 2011, the Wuppertal released their debut in the sold-out Amsterdam Concertgebouw under the baton of Toshiyuki Kamioka. For the interpretation of Brahms' 1st Piano Concerto they could win the American exceptional pianist Tzimon Barto.
The discography of the Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal is extensive. In addition to an Echo Klassik-winning Rubinstein CD (> Don Quixote <, ballet music from> The Demon <as well as the Violoncello Concerto with Alban Gerhardt) numerous CDs have been released in recent years under the direction of Toshiyuki Kamioka, including Bruckner's 7th Symphony, Tchaikovsky's Pathétique and Mahler's 5th and Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
Musical diversity is demonstrated by the Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal with the soundtrack recordings from the workshop of Hans Zimmer. In 2007, the music was recorded for the Hollywood animated film> The Little Dodo <. Follow-up projects in 2008 were the documentary> Tortuga <and the animated film> Mullewapp - The Great Adventure of Friends <. In 2011, the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra recorded the film music of the composer Andreas Schäfer for the literary adaptation "Tom Sawyer" based on the novel by Mark Twain.
For several years, a concert under the title> Hollywood am Johannisberg <, in which under the direction of the soundtrack specialist Nic Raine an entertaining ramble through the current hits and the classics of film music is undertaken, is part of every season's program.
For almost 15 years now, the committed musicians of the Sinfonieorchester Wuppertal are increasingly dedicating themselves to the young generation of concert visitors in order to introduce them to classical music in a playful way. In addition to school and kindergarten concerts, the ensemble presents itself as a "hands-on" orchestra, especially in family concerts. Also soloists of the symphony concerts are presented in school visits and give an insight into their work and their life as a stage artist. In teacher workshops as well as in school attendance in chamber occupation pupils and teachers are prepared for concert visits. Music education designed child care at selected symphony concerts, school sponsorships and school concert projects, in which professionals and young musicians rehearse together and perform a concert, round off the extensive offer. In the performances of> Bolero <(2007),> Carmen <(2008) and> West Side Story <(2011), the spark not only jumped within the orchestra. In 2013, for the first time in orchestral history under the direction of Toshiyuki Kamioka, a joint concert of the musicians with subscribers took place. Side by side, the professionals worked with some 50 subscribers on Modest Mussorgsky's> Pictures of an Exhibition <.
For many years, the symphony orchestra has entered into partnerships with various Wuppertal schools. The partnership of the Wuppertal Symphony Orchestra with the LVR-Förderschule Wuppertal and the Schule am Nordpark was two years. Together with the orchestra musicians, the pupils with intellectual and / or physical disabilities opened up the theme of "Summer Night Dreams" through various pieces of music, dance choreographies as well as theater and shadow plays. The highlight of the rehearsal work by professionals and young talents: the joint performance in front of an audience on June 3, 2015 in the Great Hall of the Historic Town Hall Wuppertal under the direction of Toshiyuki Kamioka.