"Soul" - 2023/2024

Dear friends of music,

I put a smile on the faces of everyone I told about our new motto "Soul" in preparation for the new season. What is the feeling that this term triggers in us? It goes deep inside, to where the music also moves and touches the hearts of the listeners. Music is something that can caress, comfort or cheer the soul. But music can also tell of agonies of the soul, and it can express the "last things" that we cannot explain.

One of the composers who transforms the last things into monumental symphonies is Anton Bruckner. We commemorate his 200th birthday next year with the performance of five of his symphonies combined with other spiritual works. But works by Mozart, Beethoven, Tchaikovsky are also intended to let you unwind in concert - and with a number of world stars doing the honors in Bamberg: In addition to Jakub Hrůša, Herbert Blomstedt and Christoph Eschenbach, we welcome Lahav Shani, Kent Nagano, Mitsuko Uchida, Maria João Pires and Hélène Grimaud, among others. True to our motto resonating worldwide, we are once again drawn to faraway places this season. We will travel to Poland, France, Iceland and the USA, where we will play at Carnegie Hall, among other venues, 70 years after our first appearance there.

Robert Schumann once said that the horn is the soul of the orchestra. In Bamberg, 111 musicians put their souls into what they do every concert night to give you, esteemed audience, an experience that is unrepeatable. You have all proven your loyalty to your orchestra over the past months, and we are happy to once again play to sold-out audiences. In the new season, we would like to make your concert experience even more enjoyable and easier to organize. And we would like to attract young audiences even more, so we have created, among other things, a family subscription, which we hope will be very popular. Details can be found in this brochure.

I look forward to seeing you all again in Bavaria's best concert hall. On a personal note, I am delighted that I have been able to work for this wonderful orchestra for ten years now and that I will be able to continue to serve the music with heart and soul in the coming seasons. In the spirit of Schumann, whose "Moonlight Night" says: "And my soul spread its wings wide, flew through the silent lands as if it were flying home."

Marcus Rudolf Axt
President and CEO

Please find our season brochure here.