The Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) was founded in 1997 by former members of the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra. Today some 45 musicians from 20 nations form the core of this independently financed ensemble, which performs about 180 concerts each year and has appeared all over the world in the past two decades. In addition to co-founder Claudio Abbado, Daniel Harding has had lasting influence on the development of the MCO; after eight years as its leader, he was named Conductor Laureate for Life in 2011. Today the MCO collaborates with a network of “artistic partners” with whom it realizes joint projects over the course of several seasons. At present these include the pianists Leif Ove Andsnes and Mitsuko Uchida, the violinist Pekka Kuusisto, and the conductor Teodor Currentzis. Uchida and the MCO are performing piano concertos by Mozart during residencies at Salzburg’s Mozart Week, at the Southbank Centre in London, and at Carnegie Hall in New York. Together with Andsnes, the Orchestra has embarked on Mozart Momentum 1785-86, a project that revolves around Mozart’s oeuvre from this two-year period. Pekka Kuusisto is exploring novel concert formats with the ensemble, and the MCO continues its long-standing collaboration with the conductor Daniele Gatti in the symphonic repertoire. Earlier in 2019, the Orchestra toured with Daniel Harding to the Adelaide Festival in Australia. As the resident orchestra of the Heidelberger Frühling, it has performed Manuel de Falla with Pablo Heras-Casado. And the MCO has also interpreted Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem under Teodor Currentzis in concerts in Germany and Russia. The Mahler Chamber Orchestra is a regular guest at LUCERNE FESTIVAL, where its members participate in the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA. The MCO’s recordings have won such distinctions as the Grammy Award and the Diapason d’Or.

LUCERNE FESTIVAL debut on 8 September 1999 in a program of works by Mozart and Beethoven conducted by Kurt Masur.

For further information on this ensemble, visit their homepage at: http://www.mahlerchamber.com

August 2019