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Helmut Müller-Brühl was a highly respected German conductor whose long association with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, both in concert and in the recording studio, won over a large following from critics and the public alike. He recorded for a number of major labels, including Naxos, EMI, and Koch Schwann.

Helmut Müller-Brühl was born in Brühl, Germany. He showed musical talent early on, but did not give serious thought to a career in music until after concluding studies in philosophy and Catholic theology. He enrolled at the University of Cologne where he studied music with Joseph Schmidt Goerg and Karl Gustav Fellerer. He also took private instruction on violin and viola from Ernst Nippes.

In 1955, Müller-Brühl's burgeoning career was temporarily derailed when he was diagnosed with tuberculosis. Shortly after his recovery, he met violinist Wolfgang Schneiderhan, who would become his musical mentor. In 1958, Müller-Brühl began his long association with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble founded in 1923 by Hermann Abendroth. The young Müller-Brühl studied conducting with Abendroth and in 1964 was appointed the Cologne Chamber Orchestra's music director.

Müller-Brühl immediately established a reputation in the interpretation of Baroque repertory and soon began to lead his Cologne-based group in works on original instruments. In 1976, following strict historic performance practices and using original instruments, the ensemble adopted the name of Capella Clementina. During this period, Müller-Brühl and his orchestra achieved high praise, some critics regarding them among the most important forces in the realm of historic performance.

In 1987, the group reverted to its original name, the Cologne Chamber Orchestra, and began playing on modern instruments once again, while still embracing historic performance practices. The following year Müller-Brühl and his ensemble established a highly successful series of concerts at the Cologne Philharmonic Hall under the name Das Meisterwerk (The Masterwork) and performed mostly Baroque repertory.

In 1995, concerts from this series were led by Müller-Brühl at the Champs-Elysée Theater in Paris. Beginning in the 1990s, the conductor began issuing many recordings on the Naxos label, some divulging Müller-Brühl's mastery of repertory out of the Baroque realm: he has lead an extensive series of Haydn symphonies, as well as several discs of Mozart works, all with the Cologne Chamber Orchestra. In the first decade of the new century he remained active with the ensemble, both in concert and in the recording studio.

Unusually among European small orchestras, the Zürcher Kammerorchester (Zurich Chamber Orchestra, Orchestre de Chambre de Zurich) has gained international prominence for both historically oriented performances and those given on conventional instruments. The orchestra has attracted international conductors who have built its reputation through recordings and tours. The orchestra was founded in 1945 by Swiss conductor Edmond de Stoutz, who led the group until 1996, shortly before his death, and commissioned various new works, including Frank Martin's Polyptyque for violin and two small string orchestras. As early as 1964 in New York and 1967 in Boston, the ZKO was performing in the U.S. British conductor Howard Griffiths took over the conductorship in 1996, and Muhai Tang was conductor from 2006 to 2011. Tang was succeeded by early music specialist Roger Norrington, who built the Baroque orientation of the orchestra in concerts with recorder player Maurice Steger and others. In 2016, Norrington was succeeded by violinist Daniel Hope, the first conductor to lead the group from his own instrument rather than from the podium. The Zürcher Kammerorchester plays Baroque music on gut strings and with historical bows. Its repertoire stretches forwards to the present day, and it has also undertaken collaborations with jazz, folk, and popular ensembles. The group mounts several special concert series for children and has established programs for the training and promotion of young musicians. The ZKO has a large catalog of recordings, mostly on the Novalis, Berlin Classics, CPO, and the Deutsche Grammophon labels; on the latter, they backed Hope on his Journey to Mozart album in 2018. It is a two-time winner of the Echo Klassik "Klassik ohne Grenzen" (Classical Without Borders) award. The ZKO has garnered regular invitations to international festivals, guest appearances in Europe's major music centers, and concert tours on almost every continent. ~ James Manheim

Dutch recorder player Anneke Boeke is a contemporary artist with connections to the roots of the early music movement, and she has been an important contributor to the diffusion of that movement beyond its Dutch heartland. Boeke studied the recorder at the Amsterdam Conservatory and spent some years as a member of the widely recorded New London Consort. In Britain she held teaching positions, as well, at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama from 1985 to 1991 and then at the Royal Academy of Music, where she eventually obtained the title of honorary associate. With a collection of recorders made by Australia's Frederick Morgan, a craftsman closely associated with the roots of the entire early music tradition, Boeke embarked on a solo career. In her native Netherlands she has appeared at major concert halls, both as a soloist and in a duet with Marion Verbrueggen, and she is a frequent guest at early music festivals in the Netherlands and other European countries. She has also been a member of the Combattimento Consort Amsterdam and other Dutch Baroque groups, and her recorders were heard on various volumes of the Brilliant label's complete recorded edition of Bach's compositions. Boeke has recorded for the Hungaroton label and taught master classes in Hungary. Among her other recordings is one of the seventeenth century solo recorder anthology Der Fluyten Lust-Hof for Harmonia Mundi.

András Adorján is a Hungarian-born flutist known for his expressive phrasing and rich timbre. He is also a prolific recording artist and has recovered and reintroduced lost and unknown works by several important flute composers.

Adorján was born in 1944 in Budapest, and as a child he played the piano and a Hungarian shepherd's flute. When he was 12 years old, he started taking flute lessons from Vilmos Bántai in Budapest. However, this was quickly interrupted by the beginning of the Hungarian Revolution. Adorján and his family fled to safety in Denmark, where he was eventually able to resume his flute studies with Johan Bentzon and Erik Thomsen. During his years studying dentistry in Copenhagen, he spent every summer at the International Summer Academy in Nice, which was taught by Jean-Pierre Rampal. In 1968, Adorján completed his dentistry schooling and began studying with Aurele Nicolet in Freiburg, which was recommended by Rampal. That same year, he also won the Jacob Gade Prize in Copenhagen and the Concours Internationale de Flûte laureate at Montreux.

After winning the first grand prize of the Concours International de Flûte in Paris in 1971, Adorján began touring internationally and performed with many of the top chamber ensembles and orchestras. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, he performed as principal flutist for the Royal Stockholm Opera, the Southwest German Radio Symphony Orchestra of Baden-Baden, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Gürzenich Orchestra of Cologne, and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Around 1981, he discovered the manuscript for Franz Doppler's Concerto for two flutes, in the attic of the house belonging to Karl Doppler's grandson.

In addition to unearthing lost and forgotten works, Adorján has also commissioned and inspired new works from several contemporary composers, including Ferenc Farkas, Alfred Schnittke, and many others. In 1987, he began teaching at the Musikhochschule in Cologne, and he taught at the Musikhochschule in Munich from 1996 to 2012. He also performs and records in collaboration with his wife, flutist Marianne Henkel, and with his sons, David (cello) and Gabriel (violin). Adorján continues to be in high demand as a lecturer, performer, and recording artist. ~ RJ Lambert

The Münchener Kammerorchester ("Munich Chamber Orchestra") has distinguished itself among Europe's small orchestras by its longstanding and ongoing commitment to contemporary music. The group is among the most acclaimed chamber orchestras on the competitive German scene.

The Münchener Kammerorchester was founded in 1950 by Christoph Stepp, much later the conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra. He was succeeded in 1956 by Hans Stadlmair, who conducted more than 4,000 concerts, remained as conductor until 1995, and did the most to shape the group as it exists today. An early digital recording under Stadlmair, featuring flute concertos by Franz Danzi, appeared on the Orfeo label in 1995. Stadlmair programmed music by Schoenberg and Webern at a time when these composers were rarely heard on public concert programs, and he went even further, presenting music by arch-modernists Karlheinz Stockhausen and Iannis Xenakis and also championing the works of Karl Amadeus Hartmann. Christoph Poppen became principal conductor in 1995, and his successors were Alexander Liebreich (2006-2016) and Clemens Schuldt (2016-2022). Since 2022, the orchestra's leadership has been carried out by two concertmasters and a board with other musicians and administrators. The orchestra has continued to program new music, including premieres by Erkki-Sven Tüür, Wolfgang Rihm, and Thomas Larcher. Since 1995, it has presented more than 80 new works.

The orchestra has won several awards, including the Neues Hören ("New Hearing") Prize of the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste, given to an ensemble that excels in the presentation of contemporary music to new audiences. The Münchener Kammerorchester performs at the Prinzregententheater and at other Munich venues.  The group has a catalog of more than 20 recordings, covering not only contemporary music but music from the Baroque era forward and often including the works of less-often-heard composers such as Franz Danzi and François Devienne. The group has cultivated relationships with a large variety of labels, including Sony Classical, ECM, and Tudor Records, recording music from the Classical to the contemporary periods with equal enthusiasm. The group moved to PentaTone Classics in 2020 for a recording of the Four Seasons sets by Vivaldi and Astor Piazzolla, led by violinist Arabella Steinbacher. In 2022, the Münchener Kammerorchester issued recordings of Haydn's cello concertos with Christian Poltéra on the BIS label and one on Berlin Classics of works by J.C. Bach and Michael Haydn, backing bassoonist Sophie Dervaux. The orchestra returned in 2024 on Avie with violinist Sebastian Bohren in the world premiere of the Violin Concerto No. 2 of Peteris Vasks. The orchestra benefits from support from the City of Munich, the State of Bavaria, the Region of Upper Bavaria, and European Computer Telecoms AG. ~ James Manheim

Hans Stadlmair was best known as the longtime artistic director of the Munich Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble he led for 40 years in over 4,000 concerts and on countless recordings. However, certain 21st century listeners knew him primarily as the foremost champion of the symphonies of (Joseph) Joachim Raff, whose entire cycle of 11, along with other orchestral works, he recorded to great acclaim for the Tudor label from 2005-2007. Stadlmair tended to avoid opera but was otherwise versatile in his choice of repertory, leading works by a range of composers from J.S. Bach and Biber to Bernstein and Zwilich. He toured throughout Europe, Asia, the Americas, and Africa and recorded for such labels as Deutsche Grammophon, Orfeo, Vox, and Denon.

Stadlmair was born in Neuhofen an der Krems, Austria, on May 3, 1929. From 1946-1952, he studied violin, composition, and conducting at the Vienna Academy of Music, where his teachers included Clemens Krauss and Alfred Uhl. In Stuttgart, he had private studies in composition until 1956 with Johann Nepomuk David. From 1956-1995, Stadlmair served as the artistic director of the Munich Chamber Orchestra. Under him, the orchestra, founded in 1950, flourished steadily, presenting both traditional fare and many world premieres, including the 1971 premiere of Wilhelm Killmayer's Fin al punto. Stadlmair also led the ensemble on more than 500 recorded radio broadcasts for Bavarian Radio. While he conducted the MCO in a regular slate of concerts and on frequent tours abroad, he also managed to find time for composition: Stadlmair achieved considerable success with his 1966 Toccata for strings and harpsichord and 1970 Sinfonia serena, for string orchestra.

Stadlmair and the MCO were gaining international renown throughout the 1970s and 1980s for both recordings and radio broadcasts. As a composer, too, he continued to draw notice from works like the 1981 Sonata da chiesa, for viola and organ. In 1989, Stadlmair received Germany's Order of Merit for his musical achievements. Following his 1996 departure from his long-held Munich post, Stadlmair remained busy, both in composition and as a conductor. He not only led the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra in concert and on recording, but he was turning out such important works as the orchestral piece Miró (2006), which received a delayed but major premiere in 2011 by the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra under Christian Thielemann. Stadlmair died in his Munich home on February 13, 2019. ~ Robert Cummings

Karl-Heinz Steffens has had successful careers as a clarinetist and, later, a conductor. In the former capacity, he was principal clarinetist with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, and in the latter, he has held several music director positions. Steffens recorded clarinet music as a soloist and chamber player, and as a conductor, he has amassed a recording catalog focusing on 20th century and contemporary works. In 2024, he and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra backed pianist Zlata Chochieva on the album Works for Piano and Orchestra: Prokofiev, Rimsky-Korsakov, Tsafsman.

Steffens was born in Trier on November 28, 1961. He attended the Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Stuttgart from 1982 to 1985, studying with Ulf Rodenhäuser. Even while a student, he landed a post as a clarinetist in the orchestra of the Stadttheater Kassel. In 1985, he moved on to the Frankfurt Opera, remaining there until 1989; he then spent the next seven years in the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 1997, he made his recording debut, issuing the album Blue Rondo on the Tudor label with a chamber group called International Connection. The album contained a recording of Dave Brubeck's jazz classic Blue Rondo à la Turk. He made several more chamber music recordings on Tudor, including one of Brahms' clarinet chamber music in 2005. The following year, he issued the album Lush Life with pianist David Gazarov; that album had an all-jazz program. From 2001 to 2007, Steffens was principal clarinetist in the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

After stepping down from that prestigious post, Steffens began his conducting career as general music director of the Staatskapelle Halle, a position that involved responsibility for both the city's symphony orchestra and its opera house. He was music director of the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz in Ludwigshafen from 2009 to 2018; a recording with that group of music by Bernd Alois Zimmerman won an ECHO Klassik Award. Steffens also served as music director of the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet from 2016 to 2018. He remained active in Scandinavia, becoming principal conductor of Sweden's Norrköping Symphony Orchestra in 2020. He continued to hold that position as of the mid-2020s. Steffens also served as the music director of the Prague State Opera in Czechia, where he instituted a "Musica non Grata" series devoted to works by composers persecuted by 20th century totalitarian regimes.

The orchestras Steffens has guest conducted make up a distinguished roster, including the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and various top English groups. Steffens has recorded with many of the groups he has been associated with, including the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, with which he issued an album of works by George Antheil -- including A Jazz Symphony -- in 2017. Most of his recordings have featured 20th and 21st century works. Steffens made several albums for Capriccio, moving to Naïve in 2024 for an album of piano-and-orchestra works with Zlata Chochieva and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. By that time, his catalog comprised some 40 albums. ~ James Manheim

Although it is comparatively young among European symphonic ensembles, the Bamberger Symphoniker, or Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, has deep roots in that Bavarian city, with an estimated 10 percent of Bamberg residents subscribing to one or more of the group's subscription series.

The Bamberger Symphoniker was formed in 1946 as the Prague Deutsche Philharmonie, which had been the German orchestra of Prague under Nazi occupation. After the war, Germans were expelled from Czechoslovakia and they reformed themselves in Bamberg as the Bamberg Musicians' Orchestra, soon afterward taking the Bamberger Symphoniker name. The orchestra was fundamentally built by Joseph Keilberth, its first permanent principal conductor, who assumed his post in 1949 and remained there until his death in 1968 (while conducting Wagner's Tristan und Isolde). The next permanent conductor, James Loughran, did not ascend the podium until 1979, and since then there have been only four more permanent conductors: Horst Stein, Witold Rowicki, Jonathan Nott, and Jakub Hrusa, whose tenure began in 2016. As a result, the orchestra has developed a characteristic sound. The orchestra is partially financed by the Bavarian state government and carries the official title of Bayerische Staatsphilharmonie, or Bavarian State Philharmonic, and it plays a key role in Bamberg's musical life. However, the more than 7,000 concerts the orchestra has played include those in 500 cities and 63 foreign countries. More than Bavaria's other major orchestras, the Bamberger Symphoniker has served as a musical ambassador of Bavaria. Since 1993, the orchestra has performed in Bamberg's Konzert- und Kongresshalle. The group recorded for the Orfeo, Vox, and Koch Schwann labels, among others, in the 1980s and 1990s, moving mostly to Tudor and CPO in the 2000s. It has also hosted prestigious guest conductors including Herbert Blomstedt and Neeme Järvi, issuing a cycle of Glazunov's symphonies with the latter in 2019. ~ James Manheim

Jonathan Nott achieved success as a conductor in a rather unusual fashion: with no competition victories under his belt and no mentoring conductor ushering him along, he launched his career in foreign opera houses, eventually conducting orchestral concerts on the side, but often with modern or contemporary works on the bill. Nott developed a reputation for his interpretations of avant-garde music, making a recording early in his career (1996) for BIS that contained works by Xenakis, Berio, and Fornés. He would make others later on, offering music by Ligeti, Feldman, Rihm, and others. In the new century, however, Nott has been drawing praise for his Schubert, Mahler, and Mozart and, of course, for his operatic readings of Verdi, Puccini, and other notables.

Nott was born in Solihull, West Midlands, England, on December 25, 1962. His father was an Anglican priest who helped instill the Anglican choral tradition in his son. Nott studied choral music at Cambridge University and then voice and flute at the Royal Northern College of Music in Manchester. Soon, however, Nott turned to conducting at the London-based National Opera Studio. Nott debuted at the 1988 Battignano Opera Festival in Italy, and the following year, he secured an appointment as kapellmeister at the Frankfurt Opera. He moved on to the Hessian National Theater in Wiesbaden, where he served as Hoch Kapellmeister from 1991, later holding the position of chief conductor for the 1995-1996 season.

In the mid-'90s, Nott began appearing as a guest conductor with major orchestras across the globe, including the Orchestre de Paris, Munich Philharmonic, the Concertgebouw, and the major orchestras of London, New York, and Los Angeles. Nott was appointed principal conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra in 1997, serving until 2002. During this period, he also held the post of music director at the Lucerne Theater. In 2000, Nott was appointed both music director of the Paris-based Ensemble InterContemporain (serving until 2003) and principal conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra (serving until 2016). While with the latter group, Nott added several major accolades, taking up the music director position with the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra in 2012 and the principal conductor and artistic advisor posts with the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie in 2014. That year, he made his first appearance with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, which led to the orchestra naming him as its next music and artistic director in 2015, with his tenure beginning in 2017. As of early 2024, he continued to hold these positions.

Nott has achieved some of his greatest acclaim on recordings with the Bamberg Symphony and perhaps in the concert hall as well. His cycles of Schubert and Mahler symphonies received lavish acclaim internationally. ~ Robert Cummings & Keith Finke

Before his 25th birthday, Jakub Hrůša had already served as associate conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, after which he took on three conducting posts simultaneously. By then, he already had a recording contract with the Supraphon label. To assert he was one of the most promising Czech conductors of his generation would be something of an understatement -- he has taken on further prestigious conducting posts, both in the concert and operatic worlds, and he has appeared on several acclaimed recordings. Hrůša has favored Czech music, particularly works by Dvořák, Smetana, and Janáček, but he has also scored success in the music of Mozart, Beethoven, Prokofiev, and many others. In opera, Hrůša has led acclaimed performances of works by Bizet, Massenet, Puccini, and others. Hrůša is the chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, and the music director of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, beginning in 2025.

Hrůša was born in Brno, Czech Republic, on July 23, 1981. He played the piano in his youth and also became proficient on the trombone. He eventually developed an interest in conducting and enrolled at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts, where he studied conducting with Jiří Bělohlávek, Leoš Svárovský, and Radomil Eliska. Hrůša played both the trombone and piano in the student orchestra there and graduated in 2004. By that time, he had already held the post of associate conductor with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra for two years. He concluded his service with the Czech Philharmonic in 2005, and that same year, he took on a trio of assignments: associate conductor of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, chief conductor of the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic in Zlín, Czech Republic, and principal guest conductor of the Prague Philharmonia. Hrůša held his posts in France and Zlín until 2006, the year he signed the recording contract with Supraphon. The deal called for six recordings, and the first two of them appeared in 2006, the latter containing Dvořák's Suite in A and Suk's Serenade for strings and Fantastic Scherzo, all with the Prague Philharmonia.

Hrůša found critical success with the Prague Philharmonia and, in 2008, became the principal conductor of the ensemble. That same year, he conducted acclaimed performances of Bizet's Carmen at both the Glyndebourne Festival and with Glyndebourne on Tour. He also led a performance of Massenet's Werther at Opera Hong Kong. Hrůša debuted in the U.S. in 2009, leading concerts with the Milwaukee and Indianapolis Symphony Orchestras. From 2010 until 2012, Hrůša served as the music director of Glyndebourne on Tour. In 2011, Hrůša led an acclaimed performance of Britten's The Turn of the Screw at the Glyndebourne Festival. Later that year, Hrůša was named the music director at the Royal Danish Opera, effective in 2013, but in early 2012, he resigned from the post owing to announced budget cuts.

Hrůša remained in his post with the Prague Philharmonia until 2015, after which he made significant debuts at La Scala, the Vienna State Opera, and the Frankfurt Opera in the 2015-2016 season; he was also named the principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. The following season, Hrůša became the chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. During this time, he also held principal guest conductor posts with the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. Hrůša, leading the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, backed violinist Augustin Hadelich in a recording of Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53, on the album Bohemian Tales in 2020, which earned Hrůša a Grammy nomination. In 2022, after making several guest-conducting appearances, Hrůša was named the next music director of the Royal Opera, Covent Garden, effective in 2025. ~ Robert Cummings & Keith Finke