räsonanz – Munich 2018
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
Acknowledged as “the finest chamber orchestra in the world” (BBC 2 Television), the Chamber Orchestra of Europe was founded in 1981 by a group of young musicians graduating from the European Union Youth Orchestra. It was their ambition to continue working together at the highest possible professional level, and of that original group, thirteen remain in the current core membership of around sixty. The members of the COE, selected by the Orchestra itself, pursue parallel careers as international soloists, Leaders and Principals of nationally-based orchestras, as members of eminent chamber groups, and as tutors and professors of music. It is their wealth of cultural backgrounds and shared love of music-making which remain at the heart of their inspired performances.
Performances are given regularly in the major cities of Europe and occasionally in the USA and the Far East.
The COE has strong links with the Lucerne Festival and also with many of the major concert halls in Europe. These include the Philharmonie de Paris, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the Cologne Philharmonie, the Philharmonie Luxembourg and the Festspielhaus in Baden-Baden.
Over the years the COE has performed with many of the world’s greatest artists. The Orchestra developed especially close relationships with the late Claudio Abbado and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Now, it is fortunate to be working very closely with Bernard Haitink, Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Sir András Schiff, who are all Honorary Members, and has forged strong artistic partnerships with Pierre Laurent Aimard, Lisa Batiashvili, Janine Jansen, Vladimir Jurowski, Leonidas Kavakos, Sir Antonio Pappano and Robin Ticciati.
Yannick Nézet-Séguin believes that the key to the partnership is “keeping things fresh, by being truly in the moment. To be able to do this, you need the absolute best musicians in the world… The COE’s members totally embrace that kind of freedom, and that is very inspiring to me because I can then truly express all my ideas about the music without any limitations”.
Well, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe is a very unique orchestra you know? They decided 30 years ago to found an orchestra and the best possible musicians joined this project, working on great pieces with great conductors and soloists. They are people from a very fine culture and an incredibly refined orches-tra musically. In the history of the orchestra, I arrived in the latter part (perform-ing Beethoven concertos under Harnoncourt and directing Mozart from the key-board). The COE was already established and incredibly unified. Don’t forget that this is an orchestra that was not founded by an outsider – I mean a conductor – but by musicians themselves, who wanted to share in music-making, and it is easy to understand that, even after all these years, there is a strong common wish to go on with the project. It’s a pleasure to share music with them – an indestructible joy.
The Chamber Orchestra of Europe works with all the major recording companies and, in just over thirty-five years, has recorded over 250 works. It has won numerous prizes for its recordings including three Gramophone Record of the Year awards and two Grammys. The COE was the first Orchestra to create its own label, “COE Records”, in association with ASV Records, now distributed by Sanctuary/Universal Music.
The COE is a private orchestra which receives invaluable financial support from a number of Friends including particularly The Gatsby Charitable Foundation.
With the COE, I feel I am not a conductor anymore. I feel like a musician who can make music with them” and “this Orchestra is the greatest gift in the later stages of my career.