Conductor Robin Ticciati joins the Chamber Orchestra of Europe as an Honorary Member
The Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE) is delighted to announce that conductor Robin Ticciati, a long-standing friend of the Orchestra, has now joined the COE family as an Honorary Member, alongside Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Simon Rattle and Sir András Schiff.
That Robin is a kindred spirit was already clear to us at the very start of our relationship 10 years ago, and since this time our association has been able to flourish and grow. The success of our first concert together in December 2015 at the Cologne Philharmonie with Alina Ibragimova was followed by a week’s residency at Dubai’s Opera House in 2017 with Christian Tetzlaff. Since then we have enjoyed a series of wonderful musical adventures together, meeting with Robin several times a year and performing concerts featuring soloists including Lisa Batiashvili, Kirill Gerstein, Augustin Hadelich, Maria Ioudenitch, Bryn Terfel, Christian Tetzlaff, Francesco Piemontesi, Jean-Guihen Queyras, as well as singers Louise Alder, Natalya Boeva, Allan Clayton, Iestyn Davies, Magdalena Kožená and Gerhild Romberger.
On becoming COE Honorary Member Robin said: “Part of being a musician is about the daily necessity to reevaluate the notes we have in front of us, to search with integrity and occasional vulnerability, to quest for the ultimate truth from these wondrous composers in our lives: the COE makes that journey both possible and joyful. This is just the rehearsal… Add the audience and it is then that this magical group flies in concert with unshackled emotional zeal underpinned by a deep wisdom. Technique is never a barrier and the parasitic effect of ‘routine’ simply doesn’t exist. The COE is all about the music. That comes first. Not an easy thing to achieve today. It’s a privilege to work with them and I look forward to our future together.”
Equally delighted to welcome Robin into the Orchestra, the COE Players Committee said: “From our first meeting there was an instant musical connection. Robin shares the COE’s reason to exist, he enables us to discover our truth in rehearsals and to share this with our audience through live music. This partnership is based on these simple fundamentals and we are really excited to explore new aspects of our musicality and discover where we can go from here together.”
Peter Readman, Chairman of the COE said: “After nearly 45 years since the idea of forming the Chamber Orchestra of Europe was mooted at the Salzburg Festival in 1980, it now seems like a continuation of that early vision for the Orchestra to have invited Robin to become an Honorary Member at the Salzburg Mozartwoche Festival at the end of January following great concerts in Berlin and Hamburg just days before. Robin is the youngest ever Honorary Member and we look forward to building on the very special relationship we have established together over the last ten years. It feels like a new chapter has opened up in the life of the Orchestra as we move towards our 50th anniversary.”
Biographies
Robin Ticciati
Robin Ticciati OBE is Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Honorary Member of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He was Music Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin from 2017 – 24 and Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra from 2009 – 18.
He is a regular guest with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Budapest Festival Orchestra. In recent years, he has also appeared with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, London Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Staatskapelle Dresden and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. In the US, he has appeared with the Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra.
Since becoming Music Director at Glyndebourne, he has led critically acclaimed new productions of La damnation de Faust, Pelléas et Mélisande, Der Rosenkavalier, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, La clemenza di Tito, Carmelites, Katya Kabanova, Smyth The Wreckers, Carmen, and a double bill of Poulenc’s La voix humaine & Les Mamelles de Tirésias; working with directors Barrie Kosky, Richard Jones and Laurent Pelly, among others. This summer, he will lead a new production of Parsifal.
Chamber Orchestra of Europe
The Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE) was founded in 1981 by a group of young musicians who became acquainted as part of the European Community Youth Orchestra (now EUYO). There are now about 60 members of the COE, who pursue parallel careers as principals or section leaders of nationally-based orchestras, as eminent chamber musicians, and as tutors of music.
From the start, the COE’s identity was shaped by its partnerships with leading conductors and soloists. Claudio Abbado served as an important mentor in the early years. He led the COE in numerous operas and concerts featuring works by Rossini, Schubert and Brahms in particular. Nikolaus Harnoncourt also had a major influence on the development of the COE through his performances and recordings of all of the Beethoven symphonies, as well as through opera productions at the Salzburg, Vienna, and Styriarte festivals. Past associations with Sándor Végh, Alexander Schneider, Paavo Berglund and Bernard Haitink are also important highlights in the life of the COE. Today, the Orchestra works closely with Honorary Members Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Simon Rattle, Sir András Schiff and now Robin Ticciati (following in the footsteps of Bernard Haitink and Nikolaus Harnoncourt), as well as Sir Antonio Pappano.
The COE has strong links with many of the major festivals and concert halls in Europe. Since 2022 the COE has been the “Residenzorchester Schloss Esterházy” and in partnership with the Kronberg Academy, the COE is the first-ever orchestra-in-residence at the Casals Forum in Kronberg.
The COE works with all the major recording companies and has recorded over 250 works and won numerous international awards, including three Gramophone Record of the Year awards and two Grammys.
The COE created its Academy in 2009 and each year awards scholarships to talented postgraduate students and young professionals to study with the COE’s principal players when the Orchestra is ‘on tour’.
The COE is an independent orchestra which receives invaluable financial support from particularly The Gatsby Charitable Foundation and a further number of Friends including Dasha Shenkman, Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement, the Rupert Hughes Will Trust, the Underwood Trust, the 35th Anniversary Friends and American Friends.
To read Askonas Holt’s press release, please click here.