Musicians of the Philharmonisches Orchester Heidelberg

The Philharmonisches Orchester Heidelberg was founded on April 8, 1889. With numerous concerts, opera performances, dance productions, children's and youth concerts, a broad range of styles from Baroque to contemporary and exciting collaborations, the orchestra delights young and old alike.

Stylistic Flexibility

For the 1994/95 and 2006/07 seasons, the orchestra was awarded the prize for "Best Concert Program" by the German Music Publishers Association. Concert tours in recent years have taken the orchestra to the Cologne Philharmonic Hall, Antwerp, and Ravenna. The concerts are regularly recorded by Deutschlandfunk and SWR.

The Philharmonisches Orchester Heidelberg is distinguished by its stylistic flexibility. Since 2006, the Philharmonic has been engaging in historical performance practice as part of the Winter Festival in Schwetzingen. The orchestra has a long tradition of commitment to contemporary music: several modern works have been premiered by and dedicated to the Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2005 to 2016, the orchestra collaborated intensively with an annual "Composer for Heidelberg." The orchestra also sponsors the Heidelberg Artists' Prize, awarded by the City of Heidelberg since 1987 and the only prize in the world exclusively to female composers.

Music education is a particular priority. A family concert series is complemented by piccolo and children's concerts, as well as youth concerts. The orchestra members also frequently perform in schools and kindergartens. The youth project "Rap it Like Heidelberg" was awarded first prize by the German Music Council in the "Day of Music 2010" competition. The moderated workshop concerts entitled "Hingehört!" (Listen!) are aimed at an older audience. In addition, the orchestra members regularly perform in chamber concerts.

The new building and expansion of the theater, inaugurated in 2012, has already enabled the implementation of far-reaching environmental and climate protection measures. Since then, a working group of employees and theater management has been annually contributing ideas for improving the theater's carbon footprint. Now and especially in these times, we too would like to get involved in climate policy for Heidelberg and beyond and are looking forward to our participation in Orchester des Wandels. (Joined 2025)