The Haydn Orchestra was founded in 1960 as an initiative by the cities of Bolzano and Trento and their regional administrations. The importance of the orchestra beyond the region is further recognized by subsidies from Ministry of Culture in Rome.

The Haydn Orchestra has performed in renowned concert halls in Austria (Salzburg Mozarteum and Vienna Musikverein), Germany, Hungary, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, Switzerland and the USA. They are frequent guests to many festivals, including those in Bregenz, Erl, and Florence (Maggio Musicale Fiorentino), as well as in Perugia (Sagra Musicale Umbra), Pesaro (Rossini Opera Festival), Pisa (Anima Mundi), Toblach and Turin (MiTo SettembreMusica).

They masterfully interpret music from every epoch in the repertoire, from baroque to contemporary, as well as being an esteemed partner in the opera pit. Composers such as Luciano Berio, Luigi Dallapiccola, Franco Donatoni, Luigi Nono, Giorgio Battistelli, Matteo D'Amico and Giovanni Sollima have all entrusted the Haydn Orchestra with premieres of their works.

The orchestra has worked with many illustrious conductors, including Claudio Abbado, Rinaldo Alessandrini, Riccardo Chailly, Ottavio Dantone, Eliahu Inbal, Alain Lombard, Jesús López-Cobos, Neville Marriner, Riccardo Muti, Daniel Oren, José Serebrier, Sir Jeffrey Tate, Juraj Valčuha and Alberto Zedda have performed with the Haydn Orchestra. Succeeding the orchestra’s founder Antonio Pedrotti, the chief conductors have been Hermann Michael, Alun Francis, Christian Mandeal and Ola Rudner.

For the first three decades, the management of the orchestra lay in the hands of Andrea Mascagni. Subsequent general managers have been Hubert Stuppner, Gustav Kuhn (2003 to 2012) and Daniele Spini (since 2013). In 2014 Arvo Volmer assumed the position of principal conductor.

The orchestra has recorded prolifically, with both CD and DVD productions available on an assortment of labels: Agorá, Amadeus, Arts, Brilliant Classics, Camerata Tokyo, Col legno, Concerto, cpo, Dynamic, Multigram, Naxos, Opus Arte, RCA, Stradivarius, Turnabout, Unitel, Universal, Verdi Records, VMC Classics and Zecchini.

Since June 2019, the Haydn Orchestra is represented by Massa Konzertmanagement in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

www.haydn.it