Bamberg Symphony of Germany to Embark on Nine-City U.S. Tour in 2017

Returning to the US for the first time since 2012, the storied Bamberg Symphony of Germany will embark on a nine-city tour with Christoph Eschenbach conducting, and with violin soloist Ray Chen performing the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64, and the Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G minor, in various cities.

With more than 50 years of musical collaboration between them, Eschenbach and Bamberg present a powerful artistic force, displaying both the orchestra's historical distinction and its contemporary outlook, embodied in the young violinist, a protégé of the conductor. Repertoire will also include Mahler Symphony No. 5, and Beethoven Symphony No. 3.

Key concerts of the tour will take place at Carnegie Hall in New York on February 8 (Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage), the Adrienne Arsht Center in Miami on February 11, and Royce Hall in Los Angeles on February 17, presented by CAP UCLA. Additional tour dates include New Brunswick, NJ (February 7), Daytona, FL (February 10), West Palm Beach, FL (February 12), Vero Beach, FL (February 13), San Diego, CA (February 18), and Palm Springs, CA (February 20). See full repertoire list per city for details.

The Bamberg Symphony - Bavarian State Philharmonic - has always enjoyed a special status in the music world. Over 7,000 concerts in more than 60 countries and over 500 cities: with that record, the Bamberg Symphony is rightly considered among the top German touring orchestra. The circumstances of its birth make the Bamberg Symphony a mirror to German history. In 1946 former members of Prague's German Philharmonic met fellow musicians who had also been obliged to flee their homes. In Bamberg they founded the Bamberger Tonkünstlerorchester, later renamed Bamberger Symphoniker. The link with Prague's Orchestra makes Bamberg the inheritor of a musical tradition stretching back to the 19th and even 18th centuries, to Mahler and Mozart - 230 years of Bohemian sound.

Evidence of the outstanding reputation it enjoys everywhere comes in constant invitations to visit leading festivals and to tour at home and abroad, and in prizes for the Orchestra's recordings, including the MIDEM Classical Award, the International Toblach Composing Hut Record Prize, and the ECHO Klassik.

That reputation is also in no small part due to the Principal and Guest Conductors who have led and shaped the Bamberg Symphony over the decades. From January 2000, the Orchestra's artistic direction was in the hands of Jonathan Nott, whose contract culminated in summer 2016. Alongside him, Herbert Blomstedt has played a distinguished role in Bamberg as Honorary Conductor since March 2006; in January 2016, Christoph Eschenbach was also appointed Honorary Conductor of the Orchestra; and from 2010 to 2013 Robin Ticciati was Principal Guest Conductor.

In September 2016, Jakub Hr?ša assumed musical direction of the Bamberg Symphony. In view of the Orchestra's history, the new Chief Conductor bridges its past and present. Jakub Hr?ša is the fifth Chief Conductor in the history of the Bamberg Symphony.

CHRISTOPH ESCHENBACH, Conductor

The Bamberg Symphony and Christoph Eschenbach - their prolific story began over 50 years ago, in October 1965, when the conductor and soloist made his first appearance with the Orchestra as guest pianist. Over a decade later, in 1977, he conducted the Bamberg Symphony for the first time. Since then, he has led the Orchestra in over 150 concerts in Bamberg as well as on tours to France, the USA, South America and Japan. In recognition of this extraordinary collaboration, the Bamberg Symphony appointed Christoph Eschenbach as its Honorary Conductor in January 2016.

Christoph Eschenbach has been the Music Director of the Tonhalle-Gesellschaft in Zurich (1982 to 1986), the Houston Symphony Orchestra (1988 to 1999), and the NDR Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg (1998 to 2004). After ten years as Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, from September 2000 to August 2010, and four years for the Philadelphia Orchestra, from September 2003 to 2008, he became, in September 2010, Music Director of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and the Washington National Symphony.

As a distinguished guest conductor Christoph Eschenbach is in demand with the finest orchestras and opera houses throughout the world (Vienna, Berlin, Paris, London, New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Chicago, Shanghai, Rome, Milan, Dresden, Leipzig, Munich, Amsterdam, etc.) as well as prestigious festivals, including Salzburg, Tanglewood, the Ravinia Festival, Saint Petersburg, Granada, Rheingau, and Schleswig Holstein. His repertoire ranges from J.S. Bach to the late 20th and early 21st-centuries, and reflects his commitment to not just canonical works but also to the music of our time.

Born in Breslau, Germany (today Wroclaw, Poland), Christoph Eschenbach studied piano with Professor Eliza Hansen and won numerous piano competitions at a young age. In 1965, the first prize of the Clara Haskil competition in Lucerne launched his career as a soloist. In demand worldwide by top concert halls and orchestras, he met George Szell who invited him to tour with The Cleveland Orchestra. In the same period he developed an artistic collaboration with Herbert von Karajan as well. He made his US debut in 1975 with the San Francisco Symphony.

RAY CHEN, Soloist

Winner of the Queen Elisabeth (2009) and Yehudi Menuhin (2008) Competitions, Ray Chen is among the most compelling young violinists today. He has released three critically acclaimed albums on Sony: a recital program, Virtuoso, of works by Bach, Tartini, Franck, and Wieniawski, and the Mendelssohn and Tchaikovsky concertos with Swedish Radio Orchestra and Daniel Harding. Following the success of these recordings, Ray Chen was profiled by The Strad and Gramophone magazines as "the one to watch." Virtuoso was distinguished with the prestigious ECHO Klassik award. His third recording, an all-Mozart album with Christoph Eschenbach and the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra, was released in January 2014.

Ray Chen continues to win the admiration of fans and fellow musicians worldwide. On Bastille Day in 2015, he joined Daniele Gatti and the Orchestre National de France for a televised concert on the Champs-de-Mars in Paris in front of an audience of over 800,000. He recently completed a five-city tour of China with the Gothenburg Symphony and Kent Nagano, as well as a European tour with the London Philharmonic and Christoph Eschenbach. Other highlights of the past season include his debut with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, a recital at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, and a second engagement with Gatti and the Orchestre National de France.

In 2012 he became the youngest soloist ever to perform in the televised Nobel Prize Concert for the Nobel Laureates and the Swedish Royal Family. His Carnegie Hall debut with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Sakari Oramo, as well as his sold-out Musikverein (Vienna) concert with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly, were met with standing ovations. Ray Chen was a Junge Wilde artist at the Konzerthaus Dortmund between 2012 and 2015.

Tickets to the Carnegie Hall Concert, February 8, 2017, begin at $37, and are available online at CarnegieHall.org, by telephone at (212) 247-7800, or at the Carnegie Hall Box Office, located at 57th Street and Seventh Avenue, New York.

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