The Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO), with its unusual structure, internationality and outstanding quality, is an ensemble unique to the present time. Its organisation and method of operation make it a model for the future of the European orchestral landscape. Composed of around 40 musicians from 20 different nations, and independent of external sponsorship, the MCO plays operas and concerts all over the world, in cities as well as at exclusive festivals from the North Pole to the Red Sea. The orchestra was founded in 1997 by the musicians themselves and Claudio Abbado, and the two have been reaching milestones of European musical life together ever since.
Daniel Harding took on a central position in the orchestra in 1998. Then, at 22, he was serving as the orchestra’s first guest conductor; in 2003, he was chosen as Music Director and has been the Principal Conductor since 2008. Harding conducts around a fourth of the orchestra’s projects every season. He has worked on most key pieces of the Classical period (including the major Mozart operas and a Beethoven cycle) with the orchestra. Yet for some time now, their collective focus has been on the Romantic repertoire, which they are developing with a vitality and richness of nuance strongly influenced by their chamber-music approach.
