From innovative audience initiatives to fresh artistic partnerships, the Gürzenich Orchestra is redefining its role for the next generation. Juliette Barber catches up with its Managing Director Stefan Englert as he reveals how Cologne’s cultural powerhouse is crafting bold new pathways while honouring its heritage as the birthplace of Mahler, Strauss and Brahms premieres
As Managing Director of the Gürzenich Orchestra, what does your role typically involve?
There really is no typical day. I spend a lot of time in personal meetings with orchestra members, the municipality, potential sponsors and arts managers, discussing a variety of different tasks. But what’s really important to me is focusing on the orchestra’s long-term development. To help with this, we recently completed a branding process to envision where we want to be in five years’ time.
Since joining in 2018, including during the pandemic, we’ve used our time strategically. We’ve worked on developing standalone activities that will move the orchestra in the direction we envision. The orchestra has a remarkable history—we premiered pieces by Mahler, Strauss, and Brahms—so the question becomes how to maintain this tradition while looking to the future.
How has the landscape changed since the pandemic?
We’re facing several challenges we hadn’t anticipated. Retaining audiences is one significant challenge, and we’re also dealing with the constrained financial situation across public services, which means we really have to fight for budgets now. But I’m really looking forward to making these necessary adjustments, to repositioning this orchestra for the post pandemic world. We now need to adjust to a changing environment. It’s a challenge, but it’s also fun.
We’ve responded by reaching out with new formats. Our Citizen Orchestra and Citizen Choir initiatives were actually planned before the pandemic, but they’ve become even more relevant now. We’ve also established a special series for young people up to age 28, focusing particularly on student audiences with different formats. And we’re connecting much more with freelance musicians and cultural institutions in the city, especially museums—really trying to build new networks within the cultural field.
About 60% of our activities are actually in the opera house, which is quite significant. While we’re independent from the opera, we’re very much the opera’s orchestra—performing all productions in the house. But what’s really interesting is how we’re working to create more awareness of the orchestra beyond Cologne.
We’ve started doing a lot more touring recently. We’re heading to Japan this season, which is exciting, and we regularly perform in major European venues—Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg, Paris, Amsterdam. Usually, we do the European metropoles frequently and then venture outside Europe every couple of years. It’s about showing how this orchestra has an impact on the music world, just like it did in the past.
The orchestra receives significant support from the City of Cologne. How does this shape your vision?
We’re incredibly fortunate that our funding has remained stable. As Cologne’s city orchestra, we have this very special connection with our community. The vast majority of our funding comes from the municipality, with some subsidy from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia. There’s real loyalty from politicians and administrators, which is crucial for our development.
We demonstrate our value through various community initiatives. Our education programme, Ohrenauf!, which was one of the first in Germany, is celebrating its 25th anniversary. These activities are well received and really resonate with the city, helping maintain their support even in challenging times. And we have this wonderful Concert Society that’s been supporting us since our foundation in 1827—it’s crucial in helping us bring prominent soloists and important guest conductors to Cologne.
You’re entering an exciting new chapter with both the incoming Music Director Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Sakari Oramo, who joins as Artistic Partner in Septmeber 2025. How will this work?
Yes, it’s an exciting time for the orchestra. Andrés will be our Music Director for both the orchestra and the opera orchestra. He very much supported Sakari’s appointment as an Artistic Partner, in the artistic development of the Gürzenich Orchestra.
Andrés’s five-year contract starts at the beginning of the 2025-26 season, and he’ll conduct three to four opera periods per year as part of his role as principal conductor at the opera. It’s similar to the model they had at Staatskapelle Dresden with Christian Thielemann and Fabio Luisi. He will fundamentally shape the profile of the Gürzenich Orchestra and Sakari will support this, particularly with his experience of Nordic and contemporary repertoire, which really complements what we’re doing, and if he’s interested in taking over some of the opera commitments, then it would be good to have
this option.
We’re also looking at working with composers in a different way—having seasons where we focus intensively on particular outstanding composers. We actually have someone lined up for the 2025-26 season, though it’s a bit too early to talk about that specifically.
The 2024-25 season includes some significant programming. Could you give us some of the highlights?
One of the things I’m really excited about is taking Mahler’s Fifth Symphony to Japan. This is particularly special as we gave the world premiere of this piece at the opening concert of our 1904-05 season. We’re really trying to honour our history while looking forward. At the end of the season, we will have the world premiere of Philippe Manoury’s opera The Last Days of Mankind, composed by the artist who held the title “Composer for Cologne” for many years, which will be exciting.
Contemporary works remain important to us, and we have an exciting commission by York Höller coming up in December, Prolog und Abgesang. Orchestrale Fantasie nach einem Motiv von Robert Schumann (2024). We’ve always believed in giving space to contemporary composers while honouring our historical legacy of premiering works by Brahms, Strauss and Mahler. And this season we’re celebrating Schoenberg’s 150th anniversary, which feels particularly meaningful given our historical connection to new music.
You’ve been involved with nurturing conducting talent, including through the German Conducting Award. How does this work?
It’s really important to give opportunities to young conductors to work with high-class orchestras. And the great thing about this competition is that the finalists are able to work with a number of orchestras. I think competitions are very important for both giving practice to people, but also for positioning themselves within the arts world. We support this by providing our orchestra without any financial remuneration.
We try to include a lot of young conductors in our programming and a while ago we introduced a permanent assistant conductor position, which gives young conductors
the chance to conduct their own projects and learn from established maestros.
Our first assistant was British conductor Harry Ogg, who was the Second Prize-winner in the MDR Symphony Orchestra Conducting Competition in Leipzig. He worked with us for two years and is now Kapellmeister of Deutsche Oper am Rhein. Currently, we have the young German conductor Ustina Dubitsky, who will have the opportunity to present concerts and learn from conductors like Andrés and Sakari. We also regularly invite emerging conductors like Tabita Berglund and Julie Røssland for projects.
Following your participation in last year’s “Closing the Gap” initiative on artists’ wellbeing, and in light of recent events in the classical music world, how has the orchestra strengthened its support systems and duty of care protocols?
This was actually a very important part of our branding process. Our support system is comprehensive—it’s not just about one specific topic, it’s about musicians’ health and creating a safe environment for everyone in the organisation.
In terms of recent events and allegations, including those surrounding François-Xavier Roth, we are striving to take our responsibility seriously to build a safe environment for everyone, not just musicians but everyone working within the organisation. We continue to strengthen and sharpen these protocols, working with external experts to ensure we’re providing the best possible support system.
Looking ahead to your bicentenary in 2027, what are your key priorities?
In 2027, we’ll celebrate both our history and our legacy in the music world. But equally important is keeping music alive and fresh. We’re planning new commissions for this season to maintain our commitment to living composers and contemporary music. It’s about being fresh with both the old repertoire and new impulses from outside.
The goal is to balance our remarkable tradition with innovation, ensuring we remain relevant for future generations while honouring our historical significance in the musical world. You know, we’re not just celebrating the past—we’re really looking at how we can shape the future of classical music in Cologne and beyond and keep music alive.
