The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) is a German

broadcast orchestra A radio orchestra (or broadcast orchestra) is an orchestra employed by a radio network (and sometimes television networks) in order to provide programming as well as sometimes perform incidental or theme music for various shows on the network. In ...

based in

Berlin Berlin ( , ) is the capital and largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's most populous city, according to population within city limits. One of Germany's sixteen constitue ...

. The

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

performs its concerts principally in the

Philharmonie Berlin The Berliner Philharmonie () is a concert hall in Berlin, Germany, and home to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The Philharmonie lies on the south edge of the city's Tiergarten and just west of the former Berlin Wall. The Philharmonie is on ...

. The orchestra is administratively based at the ''Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg (RBB) Fernsehzentrum'' in Berlin.

History

The orchestra was founded in 1946 by American occupation forces as the ''RIAS Symphonie-Orchester'' (RIAS, ''

Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor RIAS (german: Rundfunk im amerikanischen Sektor; en, ''Radio in the American Sector'') was a radio and television station in the American Sector of Berlin during the Cold War. It was founded by the US occupational authorities after World War I ...

'' / "Radio In the American Sector"). It was also known as the American Sector Symphony Orchestra. The orchestra's first principal conductor was

Ferenc Fricsay Ferenc Fricsay (; 9 August 1914 – 20 February 1963) was a Hungarian conductor. From 1960 until his death, he was an Austrian citizen. Biography Fricsay was born in Budapest in 1914 and studied music under Béla Bartók, Zoltán Kodály, E ...

. In 1956 it was renamed the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (''Radio-Symphonie-Orchester Berlin''), and in 1993 took on its present name. Between the chief conductorships of

Lorin Maazel Lorin Varencove Maazel (, March 6, 1930 – July 13, 2014) was an American conductor, violinist and composer. He began conducting at the age of eight and by 1953 had decided to pursue a career in music. He had established a reputation in th ...

and

Riccardo Chailly Riccardo Chailly (, ; born 20 February 1953) is an Italian conductor. He is currently music director of the Lucerne Festival Orchestra, since 2016, and music director of La Scala, since 2017. Prior to this, he held chief conducting positions ...

, the orchestra did not have a single chief conductor. The major conductors who worked with the orchestra during this period, from 1976 to 1982, were

Erich Leinsdorf Erich Leinsdorf (born Erich Landauer; February 4, 1912 – September 11, 1993) was an Austrian-born American conductor. He performed and recorded with leading orchestras and opera companies throughout the United States and Europe, earning a ...

Eugen Jochum Eugen Jochum (; 1 November 1902 – 26 March 1987) was a German conductor, best known for his interpretations of the music of Anton Bruckner, Carl Orff, and Johannes Brahms, among others. Biography Jochum was born to a Roman Catholic family in ...

Gerd Albrecht Gerd Albrecht (19 July 1935 – 2 February 2014) was a German conductor. Biography Albrecht was born in Essen, the son of the musicologist Hans Albrecht (1902–1961). He studied music in Kiel and in Hamburg, where his teachers included Wilhel ...

Gennady Rozhdestvensky Gennady Nikolayevich Rozhdestvensky, CBE (russian: Генна́дий Никола́евич Рожде́ственский; 4 May 1931 – 16 June 2018) was a Soviet and Russian conductor. Biography Gennady Rozhdestvensky was born in Moscow. H ...

and

Neville Marriner Sir Neville Marriner, (15 April 1924 – 2 October 2016) was an English violinist and "one of the world's greatest conductors". Gramophone lists Marriner as one of the 50 greatest conductors and another compilation ranks Marriner #14 of th ...

. The orchestra returned to having a single chief conductor in 1982 with

Ingo Metzmacher Ingo Metzmacher (born 10 November 1957 in Hanover) is a German conductor and artistic director of the festival KunstFestSpiele Herrenhausen in Hanover. Life Ingo Metzmacher is the son of the cellist Rudolf Metzmacher and the research biolo ...

became principal conductor as of the 20072008 season, with an original initial contract until 2011. However, after reports of disputes over financing and a threatened reduction in the size of the orchestra, in March 2009, Metzmacher announced his early resignation from the DSO-Berlin principal conductorship as of the summer of 2010. His final concerts as the orchestra's principal conductor were in June 2010 in Berlin and in August 2010 at

The Proms The BBC Proms or Proms, formally named the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts Presented by the BBC, is an eight-week summer season of daily orchestral classical music concerts and other events held annually, predominantly in the Royal Albert Hal ...

. In September 2010, the DSO-Berlin announced the appointment of

Tugan Sokhiev Tugan Taymurazovich Sokhiev ( os, Сохиты Таймуразы фырт Тугъан, Soxity Tajmurazy fyrt Tuhan; russian: Туга́н Таймура́зович Сохиев; born 21 October 1977, Vladikavkaz, Ossetia) is an Ossetian conduct ...

as its Principal Conductor and Artistic Director, as of 2012, with a contract of 4 years. Sokhiev concluded his DSO-Berlin tenure after the 2015–2016 season. In October 2014,

Robin Ticciati Robin Ticciati (born 16 April 1983, in London) is a British conductor of Italian ancestry. Biography Ticciati's paternal grandfather, Niso Ticciati, was a composer, arranger, cellist, and keyboardist. His father is a barrister, and his mother ...

made his first guest-conducting appearance with the DSO-Berlin. In October 2015, the orchestra named Ticciati its next principal conductor, effective with the 20172018 season, with an initial contract of 5 years. In September 2020, the DSO Berlin announced the extension of Ticciati's contract through 2027. The DSO-Berlin has recorded commercially for such labels as Deutsche Grammophon, Sony Classical and Harmonia Mundi. In 2011, it was awarded a Grammy Award for its recording of Kaija Saariaho's ''

L'amour de loin ' (''Love from Afar'') is an opera in five acts with music by Kaija Saariaho and a French-language libretto by Amin Maalouf. The opera received its world premiere performance on 15 August 2000 at the Salzburg Festival. Saariaho, living in Paris si ...

'', conducted by Kent Nagano.

Principal conductors

(19481954, 19591963) *

(19641975) *

(19821989) *

Vladimir Ashkenazy Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazy (russian: Влади́мир Дави́дович Ашкена́зи, ''Vladimir Davidovich Ashkenazi''; born 6 July 1937) is an internationally recognized solo pianist, chamber music performer, and conductor. He ...

(19891999) *

Kent Nagano Kent George Nagano GOQ, MSM (born November 22, 1951) is an American conductor and opera administrator. Since 2015, he has been Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and was Music Director of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra from 2006 to 20 ...

(20002006) *

(20072010) *

(20122016) *

(2017–present)

References

External links

Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin official English-language website

{{Authority control German symphony orchestras Music in Berlin Musical groups established in 1946 Radio and television orchestras 1946 establishments in Germany