orchester.ch is the umbrella association of Swiss professional orchestras.

We represent the interests of our members in respect of fulfilling their diverse remits as musical institutions and also in respect of their activities as orchestral sponsors and/or concert organizers. We are committed to the preservation of professional orchestras as we know them today, and to their development to ensure a top-class orchestral culture in this country.

We see our overriding task as promoting the contemporary, future-oriented communication of cultural values involving all current media forms, by assisting our members in preserving, developing and disseminating musical art forms. We do this by fostering collaboration and solidarity among our members, supporting coordination with national and international partners, and championing the interdisciplinary networking of professional Swiss orchestras.

Encouraging a broad musical education that is accessible to all social strata is particularly important to us.

We maintain an active dialogue in the Swiss and European cultural landscape and communicate openly with cultural practitioners, cultural mediators, the media and all social classes.

orchester.ch is a member of CULTURA: www.cultura.ch and of PEARLE*: www.pearle.ws/en

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Organization chart

All the information on the Association’s organization can be found here.

Statutes

The Association’s statutes are available here in German, French and Italian.

Annual reports

An overview of the annual reports is available here in German and French.

On the war in Ukraine

The Swiss Theatre Association and orchesster.ch are deeply shocked about the Russian attack on Ukraine.

Read our Statement here.

4018

musicians

15

members

1051

performances

33

world premieres

The board

The board of orchester.ch consists of three to seven members and is self-constituting. The President is elected by the Association’s assembly.

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Toni J. Krein

President
Toni J. Krein

Toni J. Krein is a dramaturge and cultural mediator with extensive experience in the area of concerts and musical theatre. He has been Artistic Administrator of the Alte Oper in Frankfurt, a co-founder of the Frankfurt Feste and leading dramaturge at the Lucerne Theatre. He has worked for the composer Hans Werner Henze, and has been the Artistic Administrator of the Lucerne International Festival of Music (now the Lucerne Festival). He was subsequently chief executive and joint artistic director of European Music Month 2001 in Basel, and from 2002 until the end of 2011 he was Head of Corporate Cultural Sponsorship at Credit Suisse. He has been President of orchester.ch since December 2010. He sits on the boards of the Zurich Chamber Orchestra ZKO and the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival, and was Vice President of the Davos Festival Foundation until 2020.

E-Mail: krein@orchester.ch

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Franziskus Theurillat

Vice-President
Franziskus Theurillat
Director of the Sinfonieorchester Basel

Franziskus Theurillat has been director of the Basel Symphony Orchestra since 2000. In addition to his main profession he is engaged as a member of various foundation councils and as an independent lecturer and speaker. He received his musical training at the Basel Academy of Music – the cornet as a main discipline and the piano as a secondary discipline. In parallel with other musical studies in Stuttgart and Dresden, he studied business administration. In his early years as a cornet player he has performed in orchestras such as the Vienna Chamber Philharmonic, the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and Freiburg, the Basel Symphony Orchestra, under the direction of Pierre Boulez, Heinz Holliger, Yehudi Menuhin, Armin Jordan, Mario Venzago among others. His solo and chamber musician activities have led him to many countries in Europe, Asia and South America.

E-Mail: f.theurillat@sinfonieorchesterbasel.ch

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Dieter Kaegi

Dieter Kaegi
Artistic Director of the  Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn

Attended schools and university in Zurich. Held permanent posts as Assistant Director and Evening Supervisor at the Zurich Opera House, English National Opera and Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Assistant to the Artistic Director of the Opéra de Monte-Carlo, Production Manager at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, Artistic Director of Opera Ireland – and since 2013 Artistic Director of TOBS (Theater Orchester Biel Solothurn). Since 2016 he has sat on the committees of the Union of Swiss Theatres (UST) and orchester.ch.

E-Mail: Dieter.Kaegi@TOBS.ch

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Florian Scheiber

Florian Scheiber

Florian Scheiber
Concert Director of the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen
Konzert und Theater St. Gallen

Florian Scheiber was born in Togo, West Africa, in 1968. After completing his studies for the diploma in “Languages, Economic and Cultural Studies” at the University of Passau, he first worked as orchestral manager of the pan-European Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, founded by Claudio Abbado, which is based in Vienna. After five years’ experience in Vienna managing an international youth orchestra that frequently toured in Europe, the USA and Cuba, Florian Scheiber joined the three-genre theatre in Münster, North Germany, as the director of the city’s symphony orchestra – his first professional orchestral management post. Florian Scheiber has been concert director of the Sinfonieorchester St. Gallen since 2004.

E-Mail: F.Scheiber@sinfonieorchestersg.ch

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Lena-Catharina Schneider

Artistic Director / Managing Director Zurich Chamber Orchestra

Born in the heart of Schleswig-Holstein, Lena-Catharina Schneider developed a great passion for music at an early age, especially for the folklore of neighbouring Denmark. She began playing the violin at the age of six and, after classical violin lessons, focused mainly on the folk music of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Shetland and Scotland. While studying German language and literature, art history, film studies and musicology in Kiel and Copenhagen, she founded Haugaard’s International Fiddleschool in North Friesland in 2011 together with folk fiddler Harald Haugaard and ran it until 2014. After graduating, she worked as a concert planner and events instructor for the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival from 2013 to 2018. It was during the festival that she met Daniel Hope and the Zurich Chamber Orchestra. This encounter then led her to Zurich in 2019, where she has since been managing the affairs of the ZKO in co-leadership with Helene Eller.

 

Email: lena.schneider@zko.ch

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Antony Ernst

Executive Director Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne

Born in Australia to a family with Austrian roots, Antony Ernst began his career as a dramaturge and assistant director at Opera Australia in Sydney. After several engagements in this capacity in Germany, Italy and Spain, he took a break to do his doctoral thesis on Max Brod’s German translations of Janácek’s operas. A contract as Assistant Artistic Director with the Sydney Symphony introduced him to the business of orchestra management, and he was subsequently employed as Artistic Director and Production Manager with the Auckland Philharmonia in New Zealand, and later with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg. Two years at the helm of the Royal Danish Orchestra (Det Kongelige Kapel) were followed by his current position as Executive Director of the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra. He is also a lecturer, playwright, writer, director, translator and was for many years a guide for cultural tours.

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Isabel Eckert

Isabel Eckert

Isabel Eckert
Managing Director

Isabel Eckert graduated from the University of Zurich with a degree in musicology, general and comparative literature and philosophy. In addition to her work as a freelance costume assistant, she worked for several years in the artistic office of the Musikkollegium Winterthur. At the Lucerne Festival she was a project assistant and was last employed at the Foundation for the Swiss Youth Music Competition.

E-mail: eckert@orchester.ch

All news and press releases can be read in our blog.

1. Write to us!

info@orchester.ch

2. Give us a call!

+41 31 311 62 65

3. Come and visit us

Verband Schweizerischer Berufsorchester,
Gibraltarstrasse 24, CH 6003 Luzern

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