From 2022, one of the world’s leading orchestras, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE) will be the orchestra-in-residence at the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt.
The orchestra was selected in a multi-round competition by a six-member jury of renowned international musicians. Their contract is for three years, with a minimum of four concerts per season at the Haydn Hall for the classic.Esterházy concert series, and for HERBSTGOLD Festivals. They will also be involved in other chamber music and educational projects, and will be responsible for expanding the existing collaboration with the Haydn Conservatory.
The Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE) was founded in 1981 by young artists formerly playing in the European Community Youth Orchestra (now known as the EUYO). Today, the core orchestra consists of sixty permanent members — soloists, principals, renowned chamber musicians, and music professors —, and the new members are voted in by the musicians themselves.
From the very beginning, the orchestra’s profile has been defined by its collaboration with renowned conductors and soloists. In its early years, the orchestra was mentored by Claudio Abbado: they also performed semi-scenic form of operas such as Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims, or The Barber of Seville, and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro, and Don Giovanni. Another major figure in the ensemble’s life was Nikolaus Harnoncourt, with whom they performed all of Beethoven’s symphonies and staged operas at the Salzburg Festival, the Vienna Festival, and the Styriarte festival.
Recently the orchestra has been working closely together with András Schiff and Canadian conductor and pianist Yannick Nézet-Séguin — both are honorary members of the orchestra —, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir Antonio Pappano, Robin Ticciati, and Vladimir Jurowski.
The orchestra is a regular guest on some of Europe’s most prestigious stages: the Philharmonie in Berlin, the Philharmonie in Paris, the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, the Philharmonie in Luxembourg, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Alte Oper Frankfurt. These performances are the basis for tours to the Middle East and the USA.
In its history, the orchestra has recorded more than 250 musical compositions; its CDs have won two Grammy Awards and three Recording of the Year awards from Gramophone magazine. In November 2020, they released their latest album, a Schubert Box, featuring a previously unreleased recording from 1988 conducted by Nicolaus Harnoncourt. This album is both a backward glance to the past, and an outlook to the future, anticipating the orchestra’s 40th anniversary which will be celebrated in 2021.
