The Bridges Chamber Orchestra
Since 2019, the Bridges Chamber Orchestra has brought predominantly freelance musicians and their instruments together from diverse regions of the European, Asian and American continents. The orchestra members are experts in European classical music, classical Arabic as well as Persian music, jazz, Eastern European folklore and contemporary music. In co-creative processes, the orchestra members compose and arrange a large part of their repertoire themselves. They develop ideas for musical pieces that make multiple identities audible and show how the variety of different cultures can be melded together without giving up individual identities. In this way, Bridges – Musik verbindet shapes a musical style that reflects the diversity of the German society of today and is a pioneer of a new sound language: transcultural contemporary music.
The Bridges Chamber Orchestra was named the Kronberg Academy's Orchestra in Residence in September 2022. In November 2022, it was named on the shortlist of the "Prize Innovation 2022" of the German Orchestra Foundation. It is one of the winners of the Hessian Integration Prize 2022 and received the German Record Critics' Award 2/2021 (category "Grenzgänge") for its debut album "Identigration", which was published in 2021 in co-production with the hr. These awards illustrate the relevance of their sound language and distinguish the artistic work they have already done within the first album. In 2019, the Bridges Chamber Orchestra was celebrated as a national lighthouse project for exemplifying diversity and integration in practice with the reception of The Power of the Arts 2019, as well as the Special Impact Awardof the KfW Foundation in 2018.
The Bridges Chamber Orchestra and its members are consulted throughout Germany and Europe as specialists in the development of a progressive, transcultural musical style. In addition to our own compositions, we also commission compositions from composers of various disciplines. Previous guest composers include Majid Derakhshani, Jonas Krischke, Daniel Osorio, Khadicha Zeynalova, Atefeh Einali and Kioomars Musayyebi. The Bridges Chamber Orchestra collaborates with changing guest conductors, including Bar Avni, Leo Hussein, Gregor A. Mayrhofer, Corinna Niemeyer, Eva Pons, Harish Shankar, Nabil Shehata, Martin Wettges and Yalda Zamani.
