Berliner Symphoniker
Established in 1966; its first chief conductor was Master C. A. Buente. Even though Berlin was the gravitational centre of creative activity for this orchestra, it was often engaged with tours. In 1970 the orchestra toured South America, and in 1972 it participated in the cultural programmes for the Olympics in Munich. In 1974 Theodore Bloomfield assumed the direction of the orchestra and in 1976 received the award of the Berlin critics for quality of sound and intensity of performance, and the revival or rarely performed pieces. During the seven years under Master Bloomfield (and the next two under the direction of Daniel Nazareth) Berliner Symphoniker toured Belgium, Great Britain (including Royal Festival Hall in London), Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Until 1988 Wolf-Dieter Hauschild worked with the orchestra as a permanent guest-conductor: in addition to the intensive concert schedule he toured the Netherlands and Italy. In the beginning of season 1989-90, Alun Francis became the chief conductor of the orchestra: with him Berliner Symphoniker experimented with new creative development, which was largely successful with the audience and the critics in Spain, Turkey, the Netherlands, Italy, Brazil and major festivals and Germany. Since 1997 the chief conductor is Lior Shambadal. The successful tour in the United States of America in 1998 is especially notable. Berliner Symphoniker has a permanent number of 65 elements, which annually offer their concert season in halls such as the prestigious Phiiharmonie Halle and Schauspielhaus in Berlin. Their regular guests are world-famous conductors and soloists (including Krivine, Tortelier, Werser-Most, Kollo, Jerusalem, Geringas, Kantorow, Price, Feidman, Pavarotti). Also the orchestra is involved in teaching activity, organizing seminars and special concerts for families, pensioners and students from the state schools in Berlin.
Another aspect of the orchestra’s activity are the tours in Japan in 2002 and 2004. In 2005 Berliner Symphoniker performed in Athens and Spain and had a large tour in South Korea and China. In April 2007 the orchestra visited Argentina, Buenos Aires, and the festival in Ushuaia. In 2007 they were invited again to tour Japan, and in September 2007 to an extremely successful tour in China. In 2008 they received another invitation to tour Japan, Argentina and China. In 2010 they visited Japan with a wild success and they toured China in January 2011.
Numerous recordings Berliner Symphoniker are available all around the world.
