The COE was founded in 1981 by a group of musicians graduating from the European Union Youth Orchestra. It was their ambition to continue working together at the highest professional level, and of that original group, thirteen remain in the current core membership of around sixty. The members of the COE, selected by the Orchestra itself, pursue parallel careers as international soloists, Leaders and Principals of nationally-based orchestras, as members of eminent chamber groups, and as professors of music. Performances are given regularly in the major cities of Europe and occasionally in the USA and Asia. The COE has strong links with many of the major festivals and concert halls in Europe including the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie in Berlin, the Cologne, Luxembourg and Paris Philharmonies, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. In partnership with the Kronberg Academy, the COE has been the first-ever Orchestra-in-residence at the Casals Forum in Kronberg since 2022. The COE has also been Orchestra-in-residence at the Esterházy Palace in Eisenstadt since 2022.
Currently the Orchestra works closely with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Simon Rattle and Sir András Schiff, who are Honorary Members (following in the footsteps of Bernard Haitink and Nikolaus Harnoncourt), and also Sir Antonio Pappano and Robin Ticciati. The COE works with all the major recording companies and, in just over forty years years, has recorded more than 250 works and won numerous international awards, including three Gramophone Record of the Year awards and two Grammys. The Orchestra’s latest recording was a Brahms Symphony Cycle with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, recorded at the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus and released by Deutsche Grammophon in July 2024.
The COE created its Academy in 2009 and each year awards scholarships to talented postgraduate students and young professionals to study with the COE’s principal players when the Orchestra is ‘on tour’. The Orchestra receives invaluable financial support from The Gatsby Charitable Foundation and a further number of Friends including Dasha Shenkman, Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement, the Rupert Hughes Will Trust, the Underwood Trust, the 35th Anniversary Friends and American Friends.
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PRESS REVIEWS
„There was a standing ovation at the end – and rightly so.“
Hamburger Abendblatt, 30 May 2024
„The virtuosic joy of playing and depth of feeling came together so naturally here together in a way that only the greats can achieve.”
Sächsische Zeitung, 30 May 2023
„At its end, this “dream team” of players and conductor took thunderous applause.“
Bachtrack, 20th August 2018
SELECTION OF PROJECTS (2026/27)
28 – 29 November 2026
Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conductor / Beatrice Rana, piano
J. Brahms: Academic Festival Overture op. 80
J. Brahms: Piano Concerto no. 2 in B flat major op. 83
J. Brahms: Symphony no. 2 in D-major op. 73
16 – 18 April 2027
Andrés Orozco-Estrada, conductor / Kirill Gerstein, piano (tbc)
Programm will be announced
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PAST CONCERTS – A SELECTION
28 January 2025, Philharmonie Berlin / 29 January 2025, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg
Robin Ticciati, conductor / Iestyn Davies, countertenor
Works by G. F. Haendel & W. A. Mozart
One of the COE‘s most important partners is Robin Ticciati, with whom the orchestra performed in Berlin and Hamburg in January 2025. Joining as soloist was Iestyn Davies, who is performing with the COE for the first time. The concert programme juxtaposed arias from operas and oratorios by George Frideric Handel with arias from Mozart’s opera Mitridate, which he composed at the age of 14, and explores the transition between the late Baroque and Classical periods.
„Otherworldly Evening.“
Hamburger Abendblatt, 30 January 2025
„It was an emotional and eloquent Mozart rollercoaster, a memory to be cherished for a long time..“
DrehPunktKultur, 3 February 2025
22 June 2024 Schloss Esterházy – 24 June 2024 Lugano LAC – 26 June 2024 La Grange au Lac, Evian – 28 June 2024 Ravenna Festival – 30 June 2024 Epidaurus Festival, Athen
Sir Simon Rattle, conductor / Magdalena Kožená, mezzo-soprano
A. Dvořák: Scherzo Capriccioso
G. Mahler: Rückert Lieder
B. Bartók: Five Hungarian Folk Songs
F. Schubert: Symphony no. 9 in C major “The Great”
“Towards the end, an orchestral storm unexpectedly breaks into this melodic bliss – and then and afterwards nothing is as it was before.”
bachtrack, 26 June 2024
22 September 2023 Beethovenfest Bonn, Kreuzkirche
Robin Ticciati, conductor / Alice Coote, mezzo-soprano, Allan Clayton, tenore
B. Dean: “Pastoral Symphony” for chamber orchestra
G. Mahler: “Das Lied von der Erde”
24 September 2023 Beethovenfest Bonn, Theater Bonn (Abschlusskonzert)
Robin Ticciati, conductor / Christian Tetzlaff, violin
J. L. Adams: “Ten Thousand Birds”
H. Berlioz: “Scene d’amour” from “Roméo et Juliette”, Symphonie Dramatique op. 17
R.Schumann: Violin Concerto in D minor WoO 1
L. v. Beethoven: Symphony no. 7 in A minor op. 92
„The Beethovenfest came to a brilliant end with an acclaimed concert evening.“
Generalanzeiger Bonn, 24 September 2023
„Conductor Robin Ticciati led a magnificent evening with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.“
Generalanzeiger Bonn, 26 September 2023
