When and where did you first see the MCO in concert? December of 2006 at the Konzerthaus in Berlin, about two weeks after I started as an intern at the MCO office. It was the „Something Stupid“ tour with songs by Frank Sinatra – an evening I’ll never forget!
What do you find inspiring about your job? The people with whom I work and, of course, the music! What about your work challenges you on a daily basis? Finding a rhythm within the irregularity of this business: switching constantly between very different tasks and between everyday life in the office and life on tour. What do you like most about the MCO? That´s hard to put into words. But certainly some of the most important things are the energy, curiosity, and the extremely communicative way of making music.
What aspect of your work do you enjoy the most? Teamwork. When each person plays their part in making something wonderful and unique happen. In other words: Working for the MCO.
BIOGRAPHY Sonja Koller has been Communications Manager at the MCO since November 2010. She is responsible for press relations and editorial work as well as the MCO’s print publications.
Born in Zurich, Sonja spent a year of her early childhood in Belgium, where she had her first chance to experience a new environment and learn a new language. This may be the origin of her wanderlust: in any case, Sonja was already deeply fascinated as a child by foreign languages and cultures – and by music. In her free time she played violin, elevating it her to most important hobby when she joined a youth orchestra. Her professional ambitions, however, have always been in organisation: she eventually took over chairmanship of the youth orchestra and later co-founded a new orchestra together with three friends. Sonja studied musicology, German studies and ethnomusicology in Bern and Zurich and also spent seven months in Turku/Finland on an Erasmus placement. During her degree, Sonja worked as a journalist for various newspapers and cultural magazines and wrote programme notes for countless performances. In winter 2006/07 she moved to Berlin for three months to work as an intern in the MCO office. The following summer, she was able to accompany two further MCO projects as a PR Assistant and continued to work sporadically for the MCO on a freelance basis. Sonja graduated with a Masters in Cultural Management from the University of Basel and found her first permanent position at the Berner Symphonieorchester, where from 2008 she was responsible for Public Relations and from 2009 also built up the new area for outreach and education. Her enthusiasm for the MCO never went away, however, and her return to the Berlin office as Communications Manager really was a dream come true.
