Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Academy for Early Music Berlin, short name: Akamus) is a German

chamber orchestra Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small numbe ...

founded in

East Berlin East Berlin was the ''de facto'' capital city of East Germany from 1949 to 1990. Formally, it was the Allied occupation zones in Germany, Soviet sector of Berlin, established in 1945. The American, British, and French sectors were known as ...

in 1982. Each year Akamus gives approximately 100 concerts, ranging from small chamber works to large-scale symphonic pieces in Europe's musical centers as well as on tours in Asia, North America and South America. About 30 musicians form the core of the orchestra. They perform under the leadership of their four concertmasters Midori Seiler, Stephan Mai, Bernhard Forck and Georg Kallweit or guest conductors like

René Jacobs René Jacobs (born 30 October 1946) is a Belgian musician. He came to fame as a countertenor, but later in his career he became known as a conductor of baroque and classical opera. Biography Countertenor Born in Ghent, Jacobs began his music ...

Marcus Creed Marcus Creed (April 19, 1951) is an English conductor. Born in Eastbourne, Sussex (South England), he was educated at Eastbourne Grammar School, King's College, Cambridge, Christ Church, Oxford, and Guildhall School in London. He moved to Ger ...

Daniel Reuss Daniel Reuss (born 2 July 1961, in Leiden)Biography
at allmusic.com. is a Peter Dijkstra Peter Dijkstra (born 11 June 1978) is a Dutch conductor, especially of choirs and vocal ensembles. Born in Roden, Drenthe, Dijkstra sang in his youth in Jongenskoor Roder, a boys' choir, which his father, Bouwe Dijkstra, founded in 1985. He sang t ...

and Hans-Christoph Rademann. Recording exclusively for harmonia mundi France since 1994, the ensemble’s CDs have earned many international prizes, including the Grammy Award, the

Diapason d'Or The Diapason d'Or (French for "Golden Tuning Fork") is a recommendation of outstanding (mostly) classical music recordings given by reviewers of '' Diapason'' magazine in France, broadly equivalent to "Editor's Choice", "Disc of the Month" in the ...

, the Cannes Classical Award, the Gramophone Award and the Edison Award. In 2011 the recording of Mozarts ''

Magic Flute ''The Magic Flute'' (German: , ), K. 620, is an opera in two acts by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to a German libretto by Emanuel Schikaneder. The work is in the form of a '' Singspiel'', a popular form during the time it was written that inc ...

'' was honoured with the German Record Critics' Award. In 2006 the Recorder Concertos by G. Ph.

Telemann Georg Philipp Telemann (; – 25 June 1767) was a German Baroque composer and multi-instrumentalist. Almost completely self-taught in music, he became a composer against his family's wishes. After studying in Magdeburg, Zellerfeld, and Hilde ...

with

Maurice Steger Maurice Steger (born 1971 in Winterthur, Switzerland) is a Swiss recorder player and conductor, mostly in Baroque music. Career Maurice Steger is a frequent guest soloist with leading Baroque ensembles such as the Akademie für Alte Musik Ber ...

(CD HMF) have received a number of the most important international awards. Ever since the reopening of the Berlin Konzerthaus in 1984, the ensemble has its own concert series in Germany’s capital. Furthermore, it has regularly been guest at the Berlin

Staatsoper Unter den Linden The (), also known as the Berlin State Opera (german: Staatsoper Berlin), is a listed building on Unter den Linden boulevard in the historic center of Berlin, Germany. The opera house was built by order of Prussian king Frederick the Great from ...

, Philharmonie Berlin,

De Nederlandse Opera The Dutch National Opera (DNO; formerly De Nederlandse Opera, now De Nationale Opera in Dutch) is a Dutch opera company based in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Its present home base is the Dutch National Opera & Ballet housed in the Stopera building, a m ...

in Amsterdam, at the Innsbruck Festival of Early Music and the

Carnegie Hall Carnegie Hall ( ) is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City. It is at 881 Seventh Avenue (Manhattan), Seventh Avenue, occupying the east side of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street (Manhattan), 56th and 57th Street (Manhatta ...

New York. The ensemble works regularly with the

RIAS Kammerchor The RIAS Kammerchor (RIAS Chamber Choir) is a German choir based in Berlin, Germany. It receives support from the Rundfunk Orchester und Chöre GmbH Berlin ("Berlin Radio Orchestra and Choirs"), a limited-liability company owned by the public bro ...

as well as with soloists like

Cecilia Bartoli Cecilia Bartoli, Cavaliere OMRI (; born 4 June 1966) is an Italian coloratura mezzo-soprano opera singer and recitalist. She is best known for her interpretations of the music of Bellini, Handel, Mozart, Rossini and Vivaldi, as well as for her ...

, Andreas Scholl,

Sandrine Piau Sandrine Piau (born 5 June 1965) is a French soprano. She is particularly renowned in Baroque music although also excels in Romantic and modernist art songs. She has the versatility to perform works from Vivaldi, Handel, Mozart to Schumann, Debus ...

and

Bejun Mehta Bejun Mehta (born 29 June 1968) is an American countertenor. He has been awarded the Echo Klassik, the Gramophone Award,http://www.gramophone.co.uk/awards/2014/contemporary Gramophone Awards 2014 Contemporary Le Diamant d’Opera Magazine, the Ch ...

. Moreover, Akamus has extended its artistic boundaries to work together with the modern dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests for productions of ''

Dido and Aeneas ''Dido and Aeneas'' (Z. 626) is an opera in a prologue and three acts, written by the English Baroque composer Henry Purcell with a libretto by Nahum Tate. The dates of the composition and first performance of the opera are uncertain. It was co ...

'' (music: Henry Purcell) and ''Medea'' (music: Pascal Dusapin).

Awards

* Grammy for Christoph Willibald Gluck: Italian Arias with Cecilia Bartoli, 2002 *

International Classical Music Awards The International Classical Music Awards (ICMA) are music awards first awarded 6 April 2011. ICMA replace the Cannes Classical Awards (later called MIDEM Classical Awards) formerly awarded at MIDEM. The jury consists of music critics of magazines ...

for Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Magic Flute, 2011 * Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik for Georg Philipp Telemann: Orpheus (René Jacobs), 1998; Arias for Farinelli, with Vivica Genaux, 2002 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Die Zauberflöte (René Jacobs), 2011 * Choc du Monde de la Musique for Johann Sebastian Bach: Geistliche Kantaten, 1996; Johann Sebastian Bach: Christmas Oratorio, 1997; Arias for Farinelli, 2002; Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach: Sinfonias and Concertos, 2001; Johann Sebastian Bach: Motets, with RIAS-Kammerchor, 2005; Georg Philipp Telemann: Recorder concertos with Maurice Steger, 2006 and Antonio Vivaldi: Double concertos, 2007 * Choc de Classica for Georg Philipp Telemann: Brockes-Passion, 2009 and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Magic Flute, 2011 * Diapason d’Or for Alessandro Scarlatti: Il primo omicidio, 1998; Georg Philipp Telemann: La Chasse, 1999; Georg Philipp Telemann: Recorder concertos, 2006; and Reinhard Keiser: Croesus (René Jacobs), 2000; Johann Sebastian Bach: Motets, 2005 and Johann Ludwig Bach: Trauermusik, 2011 * Edison Classical Music Award for Georg Philipp Telemann: La Chasse, 1999 and Reinhard Keiser: Croesus, 2000 * Gramophone Award for Alessandro Scarlatti: Il primo omicidio, 1998 and Georg Friedrich Händel: Ombra mai fù with Andreas Scholl, 1999 * Midem Classical Award for Georg Friedrich Händel: Ombra mai fù, 1999 *

Georg-Philipp-Telemann-Preis der Landeshauptstadt Magdeburg The Telemann Prize is an annual classical music award for special achievements in interpretation, research and cultivation of the life and work of Georg Philipp Telemann. Since 1987, the city of Magdeburg has awarded the prize every year in March ...

, 2006

External links

Harmonia Mundi
on bach-cantatas {{DEFAULTSORT:Akademie fur Alte Musik Berlin Early music orchestras Musical groups established in 1982 1982 establishments in East Germany