Concerto Köln

Founded in 1985 by students of the Musikhochschule Köln, Concerto Köln specializes in performances of 18th- and 19th-century works in their original sound. It quickly rose to become a leading ensemble in the early music scene, giving guest appearances all over the world. This led to numerous recordings that have won such distinctions as the Grammy Award, the German Record Critics’ Award, the Opus Klassik, and the Diapason d’or. In the 2023-24 season, Concerto Köln appeared at the Mozartfest Würzburg, the Musikfest Stuttgart, the Dresden Music Festival, the Herrenchiemsee Festival, and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival and performed Handel’s Flavio, Re de’ Longobardi at the Theater an der Wien and as part of Bayreuth Baroque; it also presented Bach’s Christmas Oratorio on a tour in the Netherlands. Current artistic partners are the sopranos Julia Lezhneva and Jeanine De Bique, the tenor Daniel Behle, the violinist Giuliano Carmignola, the clarinetist Martin Fröst, and the recorder player Max Volbers. With its historically informed performance of Wagner’s Das Rheingold under Kent Nagano in the fall of 2021, Concerto Köln broke new ground and created a milestone in the history of performance. Together with the Dresden Festival Orchestra, all four music dramas of the Ring are now being prepared and presented through 2026. Concerto Köln is supported by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Kunststiftung Nordrhein-Westfalen, the Goethe Institute, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, and the Strecker Foundation.

Lucerne Festival debut on 18 August 2002 in a program of works by Mozart and his contemporaries juxtaposed with Turkish music.

July 2024