Camerata Bern

CAMERATA BERN, founded in 1962 and consisting of 15 soloists, stands for artistic excellence as well as for curiosity and the joy of playing, always fostering tradition as well as breaking new ground and engaging audiences with a multifaceted programme.
Violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja and cellist Steven Isserlis are associated with the ensemble as Artistic Partners.
CAMERATA BERN is committed to artistic diversity and moves between preserving the string ensemble tradition, engaging with historical performance practice and actively embracing new concert formats and contemporary music.
Rooted in Bern with its own concert series, CAMERATA BERN regularly performs at international festivals and in leading concert halls in Switzerland, Europe and beyond. While CAMERATA BERN cultivates the chamber music style of ensemble playing, it calls upon additional musicians for each individual project.
In addition to the collaborations with the Artistic Partners, the ensemble is regularly performing with soloists and guest leaders such as Anna Prohaska, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Alina Ibragimova or its former Artistic Director Antje Weithaas.
CAMERATA BERN‘s numerous recordings have won international awards, such as the Grand Prix du Disque, the German Record Critics‘ Award and the BBC Music Magazine Award. CAMERATA BERN and Antje Weithaas released a critically acclaimed recording of P-eteris Vasks’ second violin concerto in 2024 on the CAvi-music label. Most recently, the album EXILE has been published in January 2025 with Artistic Partner Patricia Kopatchinakaja on the Alpha Classics label.
The ensemble also regularly brings music directly to the people, beyond the traditional concert context, with school concerts in the canton of Bern and with the ‘KonzertGeschenke’ format in rural areas and in social and educational institutions such as asylum centres, prisons and special schools.