About NDR Sinfonieorchester

The NDR Symphony Orchestra, the future Orchestra in Residence of Hamburg’s new Elbphilharmonie, performs regularly in Hamburg, Lübeck, Wismar, and Kiel.

The orchestra is a frequent guest in Europe’s most important concert halls and festivals, and has established itself as one of the leading orchestras of the world on tours to Japan, China, South America, and the USA.

Founded in 1945, the orchestra’s character was shaped for more than 25 years by its first Principal
Conductor, Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt. During his tenure, the orchestra was also conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler, Hans Knappertsbusch, Erich Kleiber, Otto Klemperer, Ferenc Fricsay, and Karl Böhm. Moshe Atzmon and Klaus Tennstedt were the orchestra’s Principal Conductors during the 1970s. The more than 20 years of collaboration with Günter Wand that began in the 1980s were a milestone in the orchestra’s history. Appointed Principal Conductor in 1982 and Honorary Conductor for Life in 1987, Wand continued to conduct and musically influence the NDR Symphony Orchestra until his death in 2002. During the 1990s, John Eliot Gardiner and Herbert Blomstedt were the orchestra’s Principal Conductors, followed in 1998 by Christoph Eschenbach, and by Christoph von
Dohnányi in 2004. From 2004 to 2015, Alan Gilbert was Principal Guest Conductor, a position held since 2015 by the young Polish conductor Krzysztof Urbanski. Thomas Hengelbrock has been  Principal Conductor of the NDR Symphony Orchestra since 2011.