Orchester
Copenhagen Philharmonic Orchestra
Playing around 120 concerts, opera- and ballet-performances plus approximately 180 outreach activities per year, Copenhagen Phil is one of the busiest and versatile, orchestras in Denmark.
Copenhagen Phil can trace its roots back to 1843 when the Danish composer Hans Christian Lumbye became the first music director of the now historic amusement park Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. Lumbye requested
Playing around 120 concerts, opera- and ballet-performances plus approximately 180 outreach activities per year, Copenhagen Phil is one of the busiest and versatile, orchestras in Denmark.
Copenhagen Phil can trace its roots back to 1843 when the Danish composer Hans Christian Lumbye became the first music director of the now historic amusement park Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen. Lumbye requested that an orchestra was created to play in the concert hall of the Tivoli Gardens. This orchestra has since grown from 22 musicians to the full-sized, full-time symphony orchestra, Copenhagen Phil.
Apart from offering symphonic concerts throughout Eastern Denmark, the orchestra collaborates with the Danish National Opera, the Royal Danish Theatre and the CPH Opera Festival on ballet and opera performances each year. Educational outreach activities in public schools, music schools and secondary schools are also an integral and important part of the orchestra's activities throughout the year, bringing the world of classical music to children and youths. Also, through the Copenhagen Phil Business program, the orchestra offers customized events for companies and businesses, sharing how the benefits of playing together in an orchestra may be transferred to other work environments.
Through the years, Copenhagen Phil has developed into one of the most innovative classical orchestras in Denmark, always seeking new ways in which to create meetings between members of the public and the world of classical music; from music lovers to those who have not yet met the world of classical music.
In 2011 the orchestra first introduced their 60 minutes of-concert series, designed to attract new audiences by collaborating with popular artists from other musical genres like pop, folk and electronica. A few years later, the orchestra introduced the Open Orchestra, which allows audiences to walk around between the musicians while they are playing, providing young and old with a unique and intimate encounter with the music.
The orchestra’s most recent innovative take on the classical concert experience, 6 Crucial Moments, presents classical pieces and symphonies, which have touched on world history, music history or the composer’s personal history in some crucial way. A dramatic manuscript is created and presented by an actor alongside the music, making it possible for Copenhagen Phil to coin the new term “concert-performance”. On presenting the first Crucial Moment – A Miracle in a war zone based on Shostakovich’s Leningrad-symphony and its role during the siege of Leningrad 1941-1944 to a crowd of secondary school students, the students reacted with comments like “Amazing!” and “So moving, I could hardly breathe!”
In 2011 and 2012, Copenhagen Phil created what has since become two of the most successful flash mob videos on YouTube: A performance of Ravel’s Bolero at Copenhagen Central Station and Grieg’s Morning Mood in the Copenhagen Metro. These videos have generated millions of views on YouTube and made headlines all over the world – from CNN to Huffington Post and NHK Japan. And more importantly – they have moved people around the world.
During the 2016/17 season the German/Japanese conductor, Toshiyuki Kamioka, joined the orchestra as chief conductor, a position he still holds.