Between Tradition and Adventure: The 2017 Season of the Georgisches Kammerorchester (Georgian Chamber Orchestra) Ingolstadt under Its Artistic Director Ruben Gazarian

The 2017 season of the Georgisches Kammerorchester (GKO) Ingolstadt is under the motto “Reflexionen” (reflections). The audacious programming of the orchestra skillfully treads the line between tradition and things yet to be discovered. The program of 2017 meditates on change, being and willing, provenance and identity, tradition and innovation. There is Mendelssohn, whom Schumann labeled the “Mozart of the nineteenth century” and whose music is considered a link between classical form and Romantic content. Some of the concert nights again revolve around the star of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in the new season; the 225th anniversary of his death is commemorated in December 2016. Beyond, the GKO forges a musical bridge from C.P.E. Bach by way of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Richard Strauss, and Franz Schubert through classics of the twentieth century, such as Béla Bartók, Edward Elgar, Paul Hindemith, Franz Schreker, Alfred Schnittke, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. Contemporary composers like Minas Borboudakis and James MacMillan will also be heard.

The series of the subscription concerts starts on January 12 with the orchestra’s artist-in-residence, cellist Daniel Müller-Schott, who will not only play the solo part but also conduct. Artistic director Ruben Gazarian wields the baton in six subscription concerts. One of the highlights is his joint concert with Daniel Müller-Schott (May 4); others are the all-Mendelssohn program with soloists Linus Roth and William Youn (June 1), the open air concert at the Turm Baur (July 27), and the evening with clarinetist and ARD International Music Competition winner Sebastian Manz and the Swiss Casal Quartett (19.10.). More subscription concerts with the artistic director will be held on February 9 and September 13. Further soloists in the subscription concerts include: the promising young percussionist Richard Putz; the clarinetist Annelien van Wauwe, another laureate of the ARD International Music Competition; the Alliage-Quartett, one of Germany’s best-known saxophone ensembles; and Japanese pianist Kotaro Fukuma.

The artist-in-residence of 2017, Daniel Müller-Schott, is ranked among the leading cellists in the world. For two decades, he has been fascinating audiences and the press thanks to his outstanding musical interpretations and his winsome personality. After violinist Julian Rachlin (2015) and clarinettist Sharon Kam (2016), Daniel Müller-Schott is the third artist-in-residence at the GKO, a position inaugurated by Ruben Gazarian when he assumed the office of artistic director.

There are more musical highlights in the GKO’s special concerts. The concerts of Audi AG, one of the orchestra’s two main sponsors alongside Sparkasse Ingolstadt, have been a regular part of the season for many years. The fruitful partnership continues in 2017 with two concerts within the Audi Summer Concert series—the Classic Open Air on July 22 and the Audi children’s concert “Horch mal!” (Listen!) on July 23—as well as the traditional Audi Christmas concert on December 15.

Daniel Mueller-Schott