Enthusiastic
We are music students dedicated to orchestra work – tomorrow’s professional orchestra musicians.
Accomplished
Through auditions, we prove our qualifications for working with internationally leading conductors, soloists and docents. We are united by our studies at German-language music academies – our foundation.
Trend-setting
We question traditions and interpretations, provide new impulses to ears and brains, develop new performance practices and formats – we think outside the box.
Representative
We have a mission: to continue the living German-European music tradition. That is why we tour all over the world.
Active
Because of our orchestra’s democratic constitution, we plan, administer and educate. Being a musician means more than just playing.
We keep things moving!
May we introduce ourselves? Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, alias ‘the orchestra of the future’ – creative, highly spirited and with an incredible drive to shape tomorrow’s musical world. Our orchestra gathers the best students from German-speaking conservatoires aged 18 to 28 who put their heart and soul into music and who want to create a vision for the future. We play to the highest artistic standards, develop experimental performance formats for our biennial festival FREISPIEL and regularly tour the great concert halls in Europe and around the world. Jonathan Nott has been our Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor since 2014.
The focus on contemporary music has been written into the DNA of our orchestra since its foundation in 1974. Why? Because we want to cross borders, disrupt traditional listening habits and savour the sound worlds of today's world. We take our audience on a musical journey and make sure our concerts are memorable. Besides contemporary music, we also serve up the great symphonic repertoire and historically informed practice is also on our plate.
As the ‘orchestra of the future’, we are pioneers among the democratically organised orchestras around the world. In essence this means we do almost everything on our own! Every one of us has the opportunity to take an active part in the orchestra’s management by contributing on committees eg for programme planning or joining the orchestra’s board. We share our passion for music by organising community outreach work, by presenting our own pre-concert talks, by visiting schools on tour or in long-term co-operations with local schools.
Workshops to broaden our horizon and rehearsals with experienced orchestral musicians prepare us for our (professional) lives. For our orchestra is about more than learning to play your instrument in an orchestral environment: it’s a crucial stepping stone from studying at a conservatoire to being a professional musician and a seal of quality for many professional orchestras. No wonder that many our graduates pepper the ranks of leading orchestras and hold conservatoire-level professorships. Several well-known ensembles, such as the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Ensemble Modern, Ensemble Resonanz and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra emerged from among the ranks of the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, making a lasting impact on cultural life.
Our work is honoured by the patronage of the federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media Monika Grütters. The Berlin Philharmonic invite us regularly Berlin Philharmonic to perform in the Berliner Philharmonie and stream our concerts live via its Digital Concert Hall. We are proud of our special partnership with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra since 2015 and are grateful for the generous support by our Patrons, our Board of Advisors, our Association of Friends and our sponsors. And last but not least our work was rewarded by winning the renowned Binding-Kulturpreis 2020.
So, do you want to join us? Then sign up for one of our semi-annual auditions, join our Association of Friends or listen to one of our upcoming concerts!