Beethoven Orchester Bonn

Beethoven Orchestra Bonn

The orchestra sees itself as a passionate ambassador for Beethoven – both to the city and to the world.

In addition to working with international soloists such as Sharon Kam, Ruth Reinhardt, Vivi Vassileva, Reinhold Friedrich, Vadim Gluzman and Alexandre Tharaud, this season we are also presenting nationally renowned artists from Bonn and the region: the young violinist Judith Stapf performed as a soloist and with her trio and the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn (BOB) on the last BeethovenNacht and we have been able to win the well-known television presenter Bettina Böttinger as host for the concert series Im Spiegel.

BOB’s work focuses on the development of historical repertoire in the Hofkapelle series, intercultural projects and participatory and educational concerts. Unusual concert formats have been tested and, together with institutions such as Deutsche Telekom AG, the Schauspielhaus of Theater Bonn and the Haus der Geschichte, lively and contemporary ways of communicating artistic content have been sought.

In the past, the orchestra’s work has been exemplified by extraordinary concert projects and various award-winning recordings, such as the opera Irrelohe by Franz Schreker. The Beethoven Orchester Bonn’s first joint production with Dirk Kaftan, Beethoven’s Egmont, was highly praised by critics and was awarded the OPUS KLASSIK in 2020. In 2021, the BOB recorded the CD Alles Tutti! together with the Kölschrock-Band Brings under the direction of Dirk Kaftan. Two CDs have now been released in the Hofkapelle series, in which the BOB explores the music played by the young Ludwig van Beethoven.

Successful concerts and guest performances far beyond Germany’s borders contributed to the orchestra’s good reputation. During the coronavirus pandemic, the orchestra musicians became involved in various areas of society: they performed concerts in front of and in retirement, nursing and children’s homes in their free time, helped run the Bonn vaccination center and streamed numerous concerts. In addition, various digital formats for children, schoolchildren and adults have been created to bring hope and joy through music, even during shutdowns.

At the beginning of 2021, the Beethoven Orchestra was appointed “United Nations Climate Change Goodwill Ambassador” by the UN Climate Change Secretariat (UNFCCC) for two years. This enabled the orchestra to work with the Climate Secretariat to develop new forms of sustainable cultural work in line with the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals. In summer 2021, the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn was awarded the European Culture Prize for “its participatory concepts and the aspiration to set out for new musical shores with the audience and its namesake Beethoven”, among other things.