Mahler Chamber Orchestra

The Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) was founded in 1997 as an independent, privately funded orchestra. With around 50 members from 25 countries, it forms a “global collective” based in Berlin. The orchestra’s sound is characterized by a chamber music style of ensemble playing. It regularly performs at Lucerne Festival, the Berlin Philharmonie, and the Salzburg Mozart Weeks. Since 2024, the MCO has served as Artistic Director of the Musikwoche Hitzacker, where concerts with Leif Ove Andsnes were on the program in 2025; starting in 2026, it will succeed the Berliner Philharmoniker in performing the opera productions at the Easter Festival in Baden-Baden. The MCO received significant artistic impulses from its founding mentor, Claudio Abbado, and Conductor Laureate Daniel Harding. It works closely with a network of Artistic Partners, which currently includes pianists Mitsuko Uchida and Yuja Wang, with whom it tours several times a year. In addition, conductor Daniele Gatti serves as Artistic Advisor and focuses on larger symphonic works. Concerts in the 2024-25 season featured conductors Antonello Manacorda, Gianandrea Noseda, Elim Chan, Raphaël Pichon, and Maxim Emelyanychev, as well as violinists Augustin Hadelich, and Daniel Lozakovich. The MCO is also breaking new ground socially through its programs, including the “Feel the Music” workshop for people with hearing impairments, numerous school concerts, and MCO Academy projects that train the next generation. The orchestra has also developed new concert formats using 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

August 2024