Company history

New Artists

Friedrich Cerha, Bernard Foccroulle, GrauSchumacher Piano Duo, Toshio Hosokawa, Jens Joneleit, György Ligeti, Brad Lubman, Alejo Pérez

New Team Members

Beate Köder (till 2008), Friederike Schumacher (till 2010)

Karsten Witt Musik Management takes over half of the office space from Hermann Pölking-Eiken, who has given up his company. The remaining space in the front part of the building is occupied by the Berliner Landesbibliothek.

György Ligeti dies on June 12. On June 26, the funeral takes place, followed by a memorial service in the Wiener Konzerthaus.

Projects

György Kurtág celebrates his 80th birthday this year – as does Friedrich Cerha. Over the course of the year, we oversee the extensive touring he undertakes to mark the occasion alongside his wife, Márta – with the two of them most often playing together on two pianos.

We also carry out our first self-produced concert at the Berliner Philharmonie: Gogo no eiko by Hans Werner Henze, the new Japanese version of the opera "The Betrayed Sea," which premiered at the Salzburg Festival shortly before, under the direction of Gerd Albrecht.

The annual composers' festival at the Konserthuset Stockholm is also dedicated to Hans Werner Henze.

New Artists

Eliahu Inbal, Anssi Karttunen, Antje Weithaas,

New Team Members

Karoline Jacob, Nina Rohlfs, Gabriele Schleicher (till 2008)

Projects

First tour with the RSO Stuttgart under Roger Norrington to Brussels and Amsterdam

Tour with the Gürzenich Orchester under Markus Stenz to Athens, Thessaloniki, Vienna and Amsterdam

Together with Shaksfin Asia: realization of the interactive dance and music project Rites/Sacre by Klaus Obermaier with the Ars Electronica Future Lab at the Royal Festival Hall London and at the Aarhus Festival. In the following years, performances in Poznan (2008), Taipei (2009), Hamburg/Birmingham/London (2011), Beijing, Budapest (2013), and Houston (2018)

New Artists

Peter Rundel, Jeremias Schwarzer

New Team Members

Philippa Allan (till 2011), Alexandra Gruber (till 2011), Doreen Habicht (till 2016)

Projects

Organization of a concert with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard at the Berliner Philharmonie

Tours with the RSO Stuttgart under Roger Norrington to the Salle Pleyel, Paris and to Spain

Beginning of collaboration with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre under its founding director Lin Hwai-min: guest performance at the Megaron in Athens (Moon Water).

New Artists

Tora Augestad, Claire Huangci, Noam Sheriff

New Team Members

Antonia Grüner (till 2013), Tonia Heider (till 2017), Caroline Scholz (till 2018)

Founding of the non-profit CLSX.de-Partner für Musik to organise our own concerts and events, with Sabine Zahn and Karsten Witt as managing partners. After Sabine Zahn's departure in 2016, Karsten Witt becomes the sole proprietor.

Projects

Realisation of our own concerts at the Royal Festival Hall London and the Berliner Philharmonie as part of a tour of the RSO Stuttgart on the occasion of Roger Norrington's 75th birthday, which also leads to Luxembourg, Vienna, Thessaloniki, and Athens

Further tours with the RSO Stuttgart under Roger Norrington to Krakow, Warsaw, and Riga

New Artists

Georg Friedrich Haas (till 2017)

New Team Members

Stefan Schulte (till 2019)

After the Landesbibliothek moved out, the company took over the entire office space originally used by Hermann Polking-Eiken. A new kitchen and lounge are built in the unused space by the stairwell.

We begin a training program for two volunteers a year who commit to working with us for one year and who get an insight into different areas of the work in return. The majority are then hired on to the company.

Projects

At Ruhr2010, Hans Werner Henze experiences an exceptionally comprehensive presentation of his oeuvre.

First European tour of the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra under Myung-Whun Chung to Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic, and Russia. In this context, we organize our own concerts in the Konzerthaus Berlin and in the Rudolfinum in Prague

Maike Fuchs begins overseeing the Commissioning Scheme of the Wigmore Hall, for which she acts as a consultant till 2016.

New Artists

Jeroen Berwaerts, Maximilian Hornung, Philippe Manoury, Christoph Pregardien

New Team Members

Katrin Matzke-Baazoug, Clara Rempe, Eva Pegel (till 2014)

Marie-Annick Le Blanc leaves the management and begins an apprenticeship as a ceramist. She remains however with the company as a partner in the GmbH. Maike Fuchs and Xenia Groh-Hu are appointed managing directors.

Projects

Tours with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Eliahu Inbal to Paris, Cologne, Luxembourg, Rotterdam, and Athens

China tour with the Beethoven Orchestra Bonn through the 2011/12 winter season to Hong Kong, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Chengdu

New Artists

Titus Engel, Ilya Gringolts, Gringolts Quartet, Johannes Maria Staud

New Team Members

Yan Dribinsky, Irene Deffner (till 2020), Laura Philipp (till 2014), Miriam Todorow (till 2014)

Friedrich Cerha is awarded the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize

Hans Werner Henze dies in Dresden on 27/10/2012

Projects

Tour with the German Symphony Orchestra under Roger Norrington to the Istanbul Festival

Tour with the RSO Stuttgart under Stéphane Denève to Italy, Austria, and Berlin

Cloud Gate Dance Theatre guest performance in Innsbruck (Songs of the Wanderer)

New Artists

Samir Odeh-Tamimi, Marc Soustrot, Sarah Wegener

New Team Members

Katrin Gann, Sarah Pieh (till 2016)

New Artists

Mark Andre, Francois-Frédéric Guy, Dmitry Liss

Beginning of consulting and exclusive representation of Le Concert Olympique under Jan Caeyers

New Artists

Hans Zender

New Team Members

Celia Wilson (till 2017)

Das Volontärs-Programm kann wegen der Einführung des Mindestlohns und der Begrenzung von Praktika auf ein Vierteljahr nicht fortgesetzt werden.

Projects

Tour of Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (Water Stains on the Wall, music by Toshio Hosokawa) to Genf (Grand Théâtre), Bregenz (Festspielhaus/Bregenzer Frühling), Darmstadt (Staatstheater), Luxembourg (Grand Théâtre), and Hannover (Staatsoper/Ostertanztage)

New Artists

Ryoko Aoki, Shiyeon Sung

New Team Members

Floriane Schroetter

Doreen Lutz, née Habicht, moves to Innsbruck, where she found her own agency for singers and continues to work with Salome Kammer and Tora Augestad.

Projects

Tour with Sasha Waltz and Guests to Hong Kong: performances of Toshio Hosokawa's opera Matsukaze at the New Vision Festival at the Hong Kong Cultural Centre (together with Shaksfin Asia)

Tour with the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra under Dmitry Liss with Dmitry Hvorostovsky to Budapest (Palace of Arts), Vienna (Konzerthaus), and elsewhere

New Artists

Mariam Batsashvili, Charlotte Bray, Johannes Klumpp, Olli Mustonen, Michael Wendeberg, Vito Zuraj

New Team Members

Heike Wilms

Projects

Tour with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks under Mariss Jansons to Wroclaw and Katowice

Tour with Cloud Gate Dance Theatre (White Water/Dust) to Baden-Baden (Festspielhaus) and Ludwigshafen

Tour with Gyeonggi Philharmonic under Shiyeon Sung to Katowice and the Musikfest Berlin

First tour with Le Concert Olympique under Jan Caeyers to Innsbruck, Bonn (Beethovenfest) and Amsterdam (Concertgebouw)

Realisation of our own events with Le Concert Olympique in the Kammermusiksaal of the Berliner Philharmonie as part of a tour that also includes Ludwigsburg and the Vienna Konzerthaus. Henceforth we organise two tours a year, including concerts in Berlin.

New Artists

Chaya Czernowin, Dietrich Henschel, Meta4, Yeree Suh, Valentin Uryupin

New Team Members

Kerstin Alt, Adriana Kussmaul, Hannah Mulac, Camille Richez, Floriane Schroetter

Founding of the Berlin-based International Beethoven Academy e.V. with Jan Caeyers as artistic director

Noam Sheriff dies on 25/08/2018

Projects

Tour of Berlioz, Damnation de Faust under Marc Soustrot with Sophie Koch, Paul Groves, Bryn Terfel, Malmö Symphony, and the MDR Choir to the Dresden Music Festival, DeSingel Antwerp, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Realisation of the debut concert of the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra under Dmitry Liss at the Berlin Philharmonie as part of a tour with Olga Peretyatko to Essen, Linz, Vienna, and other cities

Realisation of a performance of Missa Solemnis with Le Concert Olympique and the Vienna Schoenberg Choir under Jan Caeyers in the Berlin Philharmonie

New Artists

Castalian Quartet, Jack Quartet, Lukas Ligeti, Gabor Vosteen, Bas Wiegers

New Team Members

Lisa Boettcher, Maria Dubinets

Hans Zender dies in Meersburg on 22/11/2019

Projects

Magazine celebrating the company’s 15th anniversary, featuring an illustration by Henning Wagenbreth

Realisation of concerts with Yuri Bashmet and the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Russia and the Moscow Soloists as part of the Russian Seasons in the Berlin Philharmonie, and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

Tour with the Konzerthausorchester Berlin under Eliahu Inbal to the Bruckner Festival in Linz

Russian tour with the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra under Markus Stenz to St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, and Moscow

Tour with the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra and the Yekaterinburg Philharmonic Choir under Dmitry Liss to Graz, Vienna, Luxembourg, Leverkusen, Hamburg. In this context a concert in the Glocke Bremen featuring Antje Weithaas as soloist is also organised.

New Artists

Simon Bode, Marie Heeschen, Hyung-ki Joo, Isabel Mundry, Andrew Robert Munn, Fabián Panisello, Julia Rutigliano, Henrik Schaefer, Ming Tsao, Yajie Zhang

New Team Members

Andrea Jung

Tabea Zimmermann receives the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize. Due to Corona, however, the award ceremony will not take place until a year later at the earliest.

From mid-March, the pandemic brings public life to a halt. Most team members work remotely from home, and from April the entire team goes into Kurzarbeit. Worldwide, only a handful of live concerts take place. We are mainly busy rescheduling engagements and negotiating cancellation fees. Many artists begin new initiatives, including streaming performances from their living rooms and studios. From early June onwards, events are gradually being held again in new formats: no intermission, no concessions, shorter concerts, and new distancing rules for the auditoriums, stage and backstage areas.

Projects

Postponing to October of one of our own concerts, slated for April in the Kammermusiksaal of the Philharmonie with Le Concert Olympique within the framework of BTHVN2020, and from there to March 2021, and finally to November 2021.

Postponing of a concert to the following season, part of a new concert series in the Philharmonie originally slated for 2020/21, featuring 20th-century orchestral works

Realisation of recitals featuring Claire Huangci in the great halls of the Berlin Philharmonie and the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg at the end of October, shortly before the start of the second lockdown

New Artists

Mahan Esfahani, Marie-Elisabeth Hecker, Daishin Kashimoto, Ulrike Mayer, Caroline Melzer

New Artists

Adrien La Marca