Mahler Chamber Orchestra

The Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) was founded in 1997 as a self-governing, independently funded ensemble. Numbering around 50 members who hail from 25 countries, it forms a “global collective” whose management is based in Berlin. A chamber music approach shapes the sound of the orchestra, which appears regularly at Lucerne Festival, the Philharmonie in Berlin, and Salzburg’s Mozart Week. Since 2024, the MCO has served as Artistic Director of Musikwoche Hitzacker. It has been responsible for the opera productions at the Baden-Baden Easter Festival since 2026, taking over from the Berliner Philharmoniker; the first work it presented there was Wagner’s Lohengrin under Joana Mallwitz. The MCO was profoundly influenced by its founding mentor Claudio Abbado and its Conductor Laureate Daniel Harding. It works closely with a network of Artistic Partners, who currently include the pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Yuja Wang; the violinist Augustin Hadelich will join them starting in 2027. With the conductor Daniele Gatti in the role of Artistic Advisor, the MCO additionally performs works for larger forces. In the 2025-26 season, it appeared with the conductors Gianandrea Noseda, Adam Fischer, and Ricardo Minasi; the pianist Igor Levit; and the violist Antoine Tamestit. The MCO ventures into new social terrain through programs including “Feel the Music,” a workshop for hearing-impaired people; numerous school concerts; and projects by the MCO Academy, which trains the next generation. The orchestra has additionally developed new concert formats in the field of virtual reality.

Lucerne Festival (IMF) debut on 8 September 1999, when Kurt Masur conducted works by Mozart and Beethoven.

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

March 2026