Sinfoniekonzert – 40 Jahre Orchesterakademie

In the organizer's words:

What do the 19 musicians in the photo have in common? They are not only members of the Deutsche Oper Berlin orchestra, but also graduates of the orchestra's own academy. They thus represent an initiative that, in its time, represented a new step in the training of top musicians. While large concert orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic had already begun to introduce young talents to the professional world through a combination of practice and mentoring, the Deutsche Oper Berlin was the first opera house to create such a program in the field of music theater in 1983. Yet today, after 40 years, this is still as necessary as it was back then, explains violinist Kaja Beringer, who has headed the academy since 2012: "At music academies, there is hardly any preparation for the specifics of musical theater - so graduates often have only a vague idea of what making music in the orchestra pit means." This is questionable because there are more opera orchestras in Germany than concert orchestras, and the everyday life of most musicians will later be characterized by Wagner and Verdi rather than Brahms and Mahler.

In fact, making music in an opera orchestra is something special, because the works are not just rehearsed briefly for a concert and then put aside again for years. The great operas from MAGIC FLUTE to TOSCA to PARSIFAL are played over and over again at regular intervals and are thus so familiar that they become second nature. This is the only way to achieve the naturalness that makes the spontaneous reaction of a hundred musicians to the breath of a singer possible in the first place. Beringer is enthusiastic about making music together, but she also knows that the university graduates have to be introduced to this experience carefully. In addition to the intensive support provided by mentors from the ranks of the orchestra, the preparation time is particularly important, she says. The academy members play far fewer evenings than regular orchestra members and are thus slowly introduced to the repertoire.

In 40 years, the Orchestra Academy has become a successful model: There are now sixteen positions instead of the initial six - thanks in part to the financial support of the Förderkreis der Deutschen Oper Berlin - and there are an average of 100 applications for each of the two-year positions. This is also due to the fact that the Academy's original program was expanded on the initiative of Kaja Beringer and now includes not only an introduction to everyday opera life, but also mental preparation for auditions for permanent positions. Today, graduates of the Academy play not only in the orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin, but also in other top orchestras from Zurich to Hamburg. For the big anniversary concert on March 18, as many as possible are to be reunited on the podium. And that would actually be a perfect occasion to take a group photo again. This content has been machine translated.