Dresden Festival Orchestra

Biography

The Dresdner Festspielorchester, founded in 2012 by the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, is the ensemble for historically informed performance practice. It. dedicates itself to the fascinating search for a work’s original sound – with a repertoire that focuses the late romantic era. The orchestra’s members are at home in such renowned early music ensemble as the Academy of Ancient Music, the Orchestra of the 18th Century, the Balthasar Neumann Ensemble, the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, the Concentus Musicus Wien, Il Giardino Armonico, Le Cercle de l’Harmonie, Concerto Köln, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin or the English Baroque Soloists. Playing on original instruments of the time a given work was first performed and in keeping with historical knowledge, they breathe new life into yesterday’s sound. Already at its premiere, the ensemble thrilled both audiences and critics. In recognition of this fact, the orchestra was nominated for the International Opera Award in 2015, offering a rediscovery of Richard Strauss’ opera Feuersnot (a coproduction with the Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden). Since 2012, Ivor Bolton has been Chief Conductor of the Dresdner Festspielorchester. In addition to its performances during the Festival, guest appearances have taken the orchestra to Berlin’s Philharmonie, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie and to the Bogotá Music Festival.