The Dresden Philharmonic was founded in 1870, and brought a new spirit to the city’s public music culture with its performances at the Gewerbehaus-Saal. The orchestra remains dedicated to catering for a diverse audience. In addition to its classical-romantic core repertoire, the Dresden Philharmonic also performs contemporary compositions, such as commissioned works from Sofia Gubaidulina, Rodion Schtschedrin, Gija Kancheli, and Michael Nyman.
Over the course of its long history the Dresden Philharmonic has been conducted by such musical giants as Johannes Brahms, Peter Tchaikovsky, Antonín Dvorák and Richard Strauss, conducting their own works. Since then the orchestra has welcomed a multitude of highly acclaimed musicians, including in more recent times, Sir Neville Marriner, André Previn, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Yuri Temirkanow, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Sebastian Weigle,Simone Young and Lothar Zagrosek among many others.
In 1909 the Dresden Philharmonic became one of the first German orchestras to perform a concert tour in the United States. Since then concert tours have taken the Dresden Philharmonic to the major music centers of Europe, the Americas and Asia.
Michael Sanderling, one of the most distinguished conductors of our time, has been the principal conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic since 2011.
Beside this position, he is guest conductor of renowned orchestras such as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Munich Philharmonic, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow, the Czech Philharmonic, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the German Radio Symphony Orchestras of WDR and SWR.
With the Dresden Philharmonic, Michael Sanderling regularly undertakes concert tours in Asia, South America, the U.S.A., Spain, the United Kingdom, Austria, Switzerland and Germany.
Under the direction of Michael Sanderling, a recording of all the symphonies by Ludwig van Beethoven and Dmitri Shostakovich is currently being produced in collaboration with SONY Classical. As of now, the first recordings of the cycle – the Symphonies No. 3 and 6 by Beethoven and No. 6 and 10 by Shostakovich – have been released, marking a new chapter in the discography of the Dresden Philharmonic.
Born in Berlin, Michael Sanderling is one of the few artists who, after an illustrious career as orchestra musician and soloist, has been able to achieve a highly successful career on the podium, establishing himself as one of the world’s most appreciated conductors. In 1987, at the age of 20, he became solo cellist of the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig under Kurt Masur and, from 1994 to 2006, he held the same position in the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. As soloist, he appeared with many of the world’s most esteemed ensembles, including the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris. However, it has been a long time since he last performed as a cellist.
Michael Sanderling first graced the conductor’s stand at a concert of the Kammerorchester Berlin in 2000 – and caught fire. Having been familiar with the art of conducting from a young age, as son of the legendary Kurt Sanderling, Michael Sanderling took on more and more conducting roles, and was named the Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Kammerakademie Potsdam in 2006.
As an opera conductor, he enjoyed success with Philip Glass’ “The Fall of the House of Usher” in Potsdam, and with a new production of Sergei Prokofiev’s “War and Peace” at the Cologne Opera. He has made many CD recordings of important works by Dvořák, Schumann, Shostakovich, Prokofiev, Tchaikovsky and others, both as cellist and as conductor.
One of Michael Sanderling’s passions is working with young musicians. He teaches at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Frankfurt/Main and regularly works with the Bundesjugendorchester (National Youth Orchestra of Germany), the Young Philharmonic Orchestra Jerusalem Weimar, the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and the Schleswig-Holstein-Festivalorchester. From 2003 to 2013, he was the principal conductor of the Deutsche Streicherphilharmonie.
His musical horizons encompass works by Bach and Handel, to Beethoven and Shostakovich, to world premieres, of which he has conducted many by now.
Renowned for her “dazzling interpretative flair and exemplary technique” (Classic FM), British violinist Jennifer Pike has taken the musical world by storm with her unique artistry and compelling insight into music from the Baroque to the present day. In demand as soloist and recitalist all over the world, she is known as an artist of exceptional integrity and depth, whilst her ability to “hold an audience spellbound” (The Strad) and “luminous beauty of tone” (The Observer) have established her as one of the most exciting artists performing today.
She first gained international recognition in 2002, when, aged 12, she became the youngest-ever winner of the BBC Young Musician of the Year and the youngest major prizewinner in the Menuhin International Violin Competition. Aged 15 she made acclaimed débuts at the BBC Proms and Wigmore Hall, and her many subsequent Proms appearances have included the role of 2009 “featured artist”. She was invited to become a BBC New Generation Artist (2008-10), she won the inaugural International London Music Masters Award and became the only classical artist ever to win the South Bank Show/Times Breakthrough Award. Passionate about helping young people from all backgrounds enhance their lives through music, she was recently invited to become an ambassador for the Prince’s Trust and Foundation for Children and the Arts, and patron of the Lord Mayor’s City Music Foundation.
In 2015 and 2016 Pike toured to Mexico with the London Philharmonic, performed in the Sibelius Festival 150th year celebrations, gave a special performance to an audience of 11,000 at the Atlas Area in Poland as part of the ‘Night of the Proms’ tour broadcast on Polish TV as well as many notable performances with Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, BBC Philharmonic, English Chamber Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra to name a few.
In 2017 she curated an unprecedented event at the Wigmore Hall with three concerts in one day celebrating Polish music, in which she gave the UK premiere of Penderecki’s Capriccio for solo violin and a specially commissioned new work by Paulina Zalubska. An enthusiastic promoter of new music, she has had many works written for her, including Hafliði Hallgrímsson’s Violin Concerto, which she premièred with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Charlotte Bray’s Scenes from Wonderland which she premièred with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall and Andrew Schultz’s Violin Concerto and Sonatina for solo violin, for which her recording was nominated for ‘Best Performance of an Australian Composition’ at the Australian Classical Music Awards.
