The Symphony Orchestra of the HfMDK consists mainly of students of the Bachelor and Master Artistic Instrumental Education programs with an orchestral instrument as their main subject. The goal of orchestral training is to comprehensively prepare students for the professional field of orchestral musicianship. Under professional conditions, orchestral work at the HfMDK teaches essential and differentiated skills as well as the joy of playing in an orchestra. Through the diverse repertoire selection, students are exposed to characteristic compositions from all eras and styles of Western symphonic music in the course of their studies.
There are usually two major orchestral projects per semester, which culminate in concerts or a video or audio production. In addition, wind exercises and repertoire rehearsals are offered as one-day projects. Projects in cooperation with the university choirs take place at regular intervals. Opera productions are also realized in cooperation with the vocal department of the HfMDK.
Stand 04.03.2024
Stand: 04.03.23
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Thanks to a cooperation with Hessischer Rundfunk, one concert of the symphony orchestra per season takes place in the hr-Sendesaal. Most recently, the program "Sehnsucht" (Longing) was performed and recorded there on November 29, 2020, without an audience due to the pandemic. hr2 Kultur broadcast the audio recording in the program Musikland Hessen on January 16, 2021, and a video recording was also made.
The beginning of this cooperation was made in the winter semester 2017/18 with a French program under the title "Flûte alors!" with Debussy's "Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune", Ibert's flute concerto and Ravel's suites from "Daphnis et Chloé".
The farewell concert of long-time professor of choral conducting Winfried Toll with the university choir and the Frankfurt Kantorei also took place on April 12, 2019, with a performance of Verdi's "Messa da Requiem" in the Sendesaal of the Hessischer Rundfunk.
For the first time, the HfMDK Symphony Orchestra gave a concert outside the university under the direction of its new musical director in summer 2017. Thanks to the support of GFF, Bruckner's 7th Symphony, conducted by Vassilis Christopoulos, was heard with a large orchestra in the Heiliggeistkirche of the Dominican Monastery in Frankfurt. The successful concert was recorded live and produced as a CD.
Another highlight of the orchestra's work was the concert they performed on July 4, 2018, as part of the Rheingau Music Festival in the impressive setting of Eberbach Monastery. In addition to Mussorgsky's "A Night on the Bald Mountain," the orchestra thrilled the audience together with the large university choir and Carl Orff's "Carmina Burana."
In June 2019, a cooperation with the Ensemble Modern began as part of the F°LAB Festival. For the first time, musicians of the symphony orchestra had the opportunity to work closely with members of renowned ensemble for new music in register rehearsals. Together they performed Ligeti's "Atmosphères" in concert. The program was rounded off by another contribution from both ensembles. The Symphony Orchestra of the HfMDK chose Bartók's virtuoso "Concerto for Orchestra" for this.
With Prof. Vassilis Christopoulos, one of the most successful conductors in Greece has been leading the Symphony Orchestra of the HfMDK since October 2016. He has conducted orchestras such as the Philharmonia Orchestra London, the Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, the Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, the NDR Radiophilharmonie, the Deutsche Radiophilharmonie, the WDR Funkhausorchester, the Staatsphilharmonie Nürnberg, the New Japan Philharmonic, the Queensland Symphony Orchestra, the Flanders Symphony Orchestra, the State Orchestras of Darmstadt, Kassel and Wiesbaden, the Orchestre National des Pays de la Loire, the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, and all the major orchestras of his homeland.
As a sought-after opera conductor, he enjoyed great success in 2016 with Elektra as well as Die Frau ohne Schatten by Richard Strauss at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden. in 2017, he officially inaugurated the Greek National Opera's new venue in Athens with Elektra; the resounding success of his conducting led to an immediate re-invitation for Shostakovich's Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk in May 2019. In 2020, he conducted the premiere performance of Wozzeck at the Greek National Opera, where he has been a regular guest conductor for over 20 years.
in 2005, he was appointed Principal Conductor of the Southwest German Philharmonic Orchestra of Constance, whose artistic development he significantly shaped for ten years. in 2011 he was appointed Artistic Director of the Athens State Orchestra, which he led with a sure hand through the financial crisis.
born in Munich in 1975, he studied oboe and music theory at the Athens Conservatory and orchestral conducting with Prof. Hermann Michael at the Hochschule für Musik in Munich. As an oboist, he was a member of the Symphony Orchestra of the Greek Radio in 1993-1995.
His recordings include the premiere recording of concertos by Nikos Skalkottas with the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, released by BIS. His CD "Mozart Arias" with the French soprano Géraldine Casey and the Südwestdeutsche Philharmonie Konstanz was awarded a golden Orpheus for the best Mozart recording 2009 by the Académie internationale du disque lyrique in Paris.
Vassilis Christopoulos was appointed Knight in the Order of Arts and Letters (Chevalier dans l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres) by the French Republic.
In 2007, the orchestra performed a Beethoven program at the 1st Limburg Orchestra Festival and at the Bad Hersfeld Festival. In the same year, it traveled to concerts in Frankfurt's twin city Guangzhou in China. For the 2009 fall concert, the Society of Friends and Sponsors of the HfMDK supported a rehearsal phase and a concert of the symphony orchestra with a renowned conductor for the first time. The chief conductor of the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Lothar Zagrosek, was won for this cooperation.
In the summer semester of 2010, a program consisting of the "Concerto Grosso for three cellos and orchestra" as well as the "Adagietto" by Penderecki himself and the 9th Symphony by Dmitri Shostakovich was developed under the direction of Krzystof Penderecki. The great success of Sebastian Weigle's work phase with the Symphony Orchestra in February 2011 proved the concept right.
Further projects under guest conductors took place in January 2014 with the then GMD of the Pfalztheater Kaiserslautern, Uwe Sandner, and in June 2014 with José Luis Gomez, principal conductor of the Teatro Sociale di Como. Under the direction of Clemens Heil, the Symphony Orchestra of the HfMDK performed Philippe Hurel's "Flash-Back" and "A Short Ride in a Fast Machine" by John Adams in the New Music Night of the Hochschule in the summer semester 2017.
Stand: 04.03.2024