Under the direction of Principal Conductor Daniel Harding, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) began its five week summer tour on May 18^th and has performed to enthusiastic crowds in Germany and Italy. The Asian leg of the tour is starting today in Singapore with concerts featuring works of Gustav Mahler and Johannes Brahms. It will wrap up on June 20^th in Hyogo, Japan. 

Singapore, June 2^nd, 2011 - Essen, Dortmund, Leipzig, Hamburg, Milan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Tokyo, Kanazawa, Osaka and Hyogo – the Mahler Chamber Orchestra’s five week summer tour is an enormous undertaking, with 16 symphony concerts, chamber music concerts, rehearsal visits and workshops for students and a benefit concert for the victims of the powerful earthquake and Tsunami that struck northern Japan on March 11^th. In all, it’s a full schedule, even for an orchestra that spends 200 days per year on tour.

The European leg met with both critical acclaim and fervent ovations from sellout crowds. As part of its tour, the MCO participated in the International Mahler Festival in Leipzig and several of the orchestra’s concerts were broadcast on radio and television.

Rehearsals for the Asian leg of the tour took place at the MCO Residence in NRW, Germany.  In Essen, for the first time, the orchestra took on the challenge of an entire Brahms cycle and is taking all four symphonies on tour to be performed in varying constellations. The second concert program was rehearsed in Dortmund and includes Gustav Mahler’s fourth symphony, Blumine and songs from the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (The Boy’s Magic Horn) with soprano Mojca Erdmann as a soloist, a true rising star who is garnering increasing international recognition.

The MCO’s last Asian trip was in 2009, a five concert stint in Beijing as the core of the LUCERNE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA under direction of Claudio Abbado. MCO will mark its fifth trip to Japan, following tours in 1999, 2002, 2003 and 2006.

The decision to travel to Japan after the recent natural disaster agreed upon by management, musicians and the conductor. Several musicians declined to go for personal reasons. General Manager Andreas Richter noted, “We spoke at an early stage with all those involved in the tour to work out solutions both for the orchestra as a whole and each individual member.” Principle Conductor Daniel Harding was in Tokyo when the earthquake hit on March 11^th and was adamant that the tour go ahead as scheduled. “The last thing the Japanese people need,” he said, “is that we turn our backs on them out of fear. We must stand by them at a time like this.”

As an initiative of MCO musicians, chamber music ensembles built of MCO members will play a benefit concert in Kobe on June 13^th. The proceeds of the concert will be donated entirely to the Japanese Red Cross. 

The last week of the tour will be spent in Hyogo with concerts under the direction of Japanese conductor Yutaka Sado in cooperation with his Hyogo Performing Arts Center Orchestra (HPACO). The two orchestras – MCO and HPACO – will come together to rehearse and to perform Mahler’s third Symphony on three consecutive afternoons.

On our MCO website you’ll find Tour Diaries in which staff and musicians blog about their experiences on tour. MCO is also offering information in Japanese for its Japanese public.

2 JUN / THU / SINGAPORE >>MORE
3 JUN / FRI / SINGAPORE >>MORE
5 JUN / SUN / HONG KONG >>MORE
7 JUN / TUE 19:00 / TOKYO >>MORE
8 JUN / WED 19:00 / TOKYO >>MORE
10 JUN / FRI 19:00 / KANAZAWA >>MORE
11 JUN / SAT 15:00 / OSAKA >>MORE
12 JUN / SON 15:00 / OSAKA >>MORE
17, 18, 19 JUN / FRI, SAT, SUN 15:00 / HYOGO >>MORE