Young People's Concerts
With music teaching in primary and secondary schools in marked decline, the Bamberg Symphony's educational work is becoming ever more important. For over a decade the Orchestra has offered special concert formats for children and young people, opened its rehearsals to groups of youngsters and has brought instruments and repertoire into classes of all ages under the banner »Music You Can Touch«. Since the 2014/15 season, the Bamberg Symphony has been partner of the pilot academy »Kultur Am Heidelsteig«, a Bamberg primary and secondary school with a social focus which is working with the City's Culture and Education Department to become one of Bavaria's first culture academies.
Family concerts
Our family concerts (max. duration: 60 minutes) are ideal for musical »beginners« from the age of 4 years in company of their parents, grand-parents, brothers and sisters. A presenter leads through the concert. Tickets € 5,00 (reduced) / € 10,00 (regular)
»Die Bamberger Symphoniker gehen zum Konzert« by Moritz Eggert, text by Paul Maar
Saturday, 9 December 2017, 11.00 and 15.00
Sergey Neller Conductor
Juri Tetzlaff Narrator
A perfectly normal afternoon in Bamberg. The clock-tower strikes three. A musician wakes up gradually from his siesta, to practice a final couple of tricky passages on his instrument. A colleague dances with abandon to Argentinian tango tunes – her way of preparing for the evening concert. For another player, everything’s upside down – he’s doing yoga, for complete relaxation. No, this is no perfectly normal afternoon in Bamberg – it’s the afternoon before a Bamberg Symphony concert! With music by Moritz Eggert and words by Paul Maar, »Die Bamberger Symphoniker gehen zum Konzert« was commissioned by the Orchestra and premiered in 2010 – it’s the ideal way of explaining playfully and using music what a large symphony orchestra does, to listeners young and old. The conductor is Sergey Neller, who won second prize in our »Mahler Competition« 2016. Juri Tetzlaff – making no less than his fifth guest appearance with us, as it happens – will introduce you to all our colleagues on stage!
»Animal Carnival« after Camille Saint-Saëns
Carnival concert for the whole family
Sunday, 11 February 2018, 11.00
Malte Arkona Narrator
An elephant, two donkeys, a swan, and even two penguins have been sighted – but where? On the platform in the Joseph Keilberth Hall! You see, once a year – so tradition has it – our players are transformed as if by magic into the most varied and fantastic beings the animal world has to offer: it’s the »Carnival of the Animals«! Lions and chickens, tortoises and kangaroos come streaming from every direction – no one wants to miss this party. There’ll be so much music, dancing and laughing, the stage will start creaking! With storyteller Malte Arkona you can be sure it’s going to be a great Sunday morning’s entertainment. This musical suite after Camille Saint-Saëns is the perfect prelude to Carnival week – and dressing up is specifically requested for audience members young and old!
Subscription Series for Schoolchildren
Our subscription series for schoolchildren offers five specially chosen full symphony concerts, including music from the classics to the moderns, for just €30.
Friday, 30 October 2017, 20.00
Anton Bruckner Prelude C major for Organ solo »Perger Präludium«
Olivier Messiaen »L'Ascension«, Four symphonic meditations
Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 2 C minor
Thomas Dausgaard Conductor
Christian Schmitt Organ
Sunday, 5 November 2017, 17.00
Dmitri Shostakovich Concerto for violin and orchestra No. 1 A minor op. 77
Sergey Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2 E minor op. 27
Nicholas Collon Conductor
Ilian Garnetz Violin
Saturday, 17 February 2018, 20.00
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Concerto for violin and orchestra No. 3 G major KV216
Anton Bruckner Symphony No. 3 D minor »Wagner« (original version 1873)
Markus Poschner Conductor
Ranaud Capuçon Violin
Friday, 16 March 2018, 20.00
Henryk Górecki »Totus tuus« op. 60 for mixed chorus a capella
Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 2 C minor for soprano and alto solo, chorus and orchestra »Resurrection«
Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Simona Šaturová Soprano
Bernarda Fink Alto
Tschechischer Philharmonischer Chor Brno (Chorus master Peter Fiala)
Thursday, 26 April 2018, 20.00
Leoš Janáček »Žárlivost« (»Jealousy«) for orchestra
Jörg Widmann »Das heiße Herz«, Song cycle for baritone and orchestra, World Premiere of a commission of the Bamberg Symphony
Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 3 F major op. 90
Jörg Widmann World Premiere of an »encore«
Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Christian Gerhaher Baritone
»Slam Symphony«
As we're based in Bavaria's poetry slam and spoken word capital it's only natural to put on a performance that mixes electrifying music and live spoken word. Three of Germany’s top slammers face each other on stage to perform texts they've created specially for this concert – the audience decides the winner!
Tickets € 10,- (reduced) / € 20,-
Friday, 17 November 2017, 19.00
Slam Symphony – Young People's Concert with Slam Poetry
Richard Strauss »Der Rosenkavalier«, Suite op. 59
Manfred Honeck Conductor
Jan Philipp Zymny Poetry Slam
Meike Harms Poetry Slam
David Friedrich Poetry Slam
Christian Ritter Presenter
For the fourth time, it’s »On stage, please!« for our slam poets. Once again, we’ve invited three top German slammers to compete on stage against each other, with poems written specially for this concert. And the audience gets to decide the winner of the whole evening! Plus, the topic this time is especially »juicy«: »Rosenkavalier«, by that magician of sound Richard Strauss! It was one of the 20th century’s biggest operatic hits – even if modernists saw it as a rehash of stale late romanticism and bitchily dubbed this dollop of sugar-coated Viennese waltz delirium »Sclerosenkavalier«. Strauss consciously composed it as the swansong of an era, a backwards glance to the heyday of Mozart’s operas as carefree entertainment. The main protagonist, the Marschallin, is having an affair with a younger man. Various imbroglios ensue, until at the end a balance is struck between happiness and regret at the transitoriness of life.
Student Concerts
With their fun but informative presentation, the Bamberg Symphony's student concerts have long been cult favourites.
Tickets € 10,- (reduced) / € 20,- (advance booking and at the evening's box office)
Friday, 17 November 2017, 19.00
»Slam Symphony« – Young People's Concert with Poetry Slam on Strauss' »Der Rosenkavalier«
Jan Philipp Zymny, Meike Harms and David Friedrich Slam Poetry
Manfred Honeck Conductor
Christian Ritter Presenter
Wednesday, 10 January 2018, 19.00
Guest orchestra: Junge Deutsche Philharmonie
Bernard Herrmann »Taxi Driver«, Suite for orchestra
Harrison Birtwistle »Panic«
George Gershwin »Rhapsody in Blue« for piano and jazz band (1924)
Leonard Bernstein Symphonic Dances from »West Side Story«
Ingo Metzmacher Conductor
Xavier Larsson Paez Saxophone
Alexandre Tharaud Piano
Thursday, 1 April 2018, 19.00
Richard Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from »Tristan and Isolde«
Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 3 F major op. 90
Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 8 G major op. 88
Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Sunday, 13 May 2018, 17.00
Guest orchestra: The Management Symphony
Bedřich Smetana »Má Vlast«
Jakub Hrůša Conductor
The Management Symphony