Camerata Bern

Founded in 1962 as a flexible instrumental ensemble without a conductor, the CAMERATA BERN quickly rose to international success. Its members are highly gifted soloists and chamber musicians. Under the artistic direction of Antje Weithaas and guest concertmasters such as Erich Hörbarth, Patricia Kopatschinskaja, Amandine Beyer, Rachel Podger and Enrico Onofri, the ensemble stands out with its subtle and perfectly homogeneous sound, its freshness and mastery of style. The CAMERATA BERN now extends its focus to historically informed peformance on period instruments, while maintaining a lively, fruitful dialogue with the music of our time.
These exceptional qualities have led the ensemble to collaborate with a great number of internationally renowned soloists such as Heinz Holliger, András Schiff, Alexander Lonquich, Jörg Widmann, Tabea Zimmermann, Bernd Glemser, Christian Gerhaher, Marie Luise Neunecker, Vesselina Kasarova, Radu Lupu, Gidon Kremer, Barbara Hendricks, Reinhold Friedrich, Leonidas Kavakos and Angelika Kirchschlager, amongst others.

The ensemble has toured extensively in Europe, South and North America, as well as in South Asia, the Far East, Australia and Japan, recently to Mexico, Costa Rica, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, Montevideo, Geneva, Genua and others. Its recordings have won several international awards. In 2012, the CAvi-Music label released a CAMERATA BERN Beethoven CD as well as the Brahms Violin Concerto (2015) with Antje Weithaas.

The CAMERATA BERN hosts its own subscription concert cycles in Berne. It brings music closer to children thanks to a large-scale project initiated in 2010, with over 130 concerts in schools across the Canton of Bern. In collaboration with Bern Municipal Theatre, the CAMEARATA co-produces full-length choreographies and opera. In early 2015, the ensemble co-produced Monteverdi’s opera “L’Orfeo” with Konzert Theater Berne very successfully conducted by Attilio Cremonesi.

The CAMERATA BERN FOUNDATION receives subsidies from the City, the Burgergemeinde and the Canton of Berne. It also receives regular support endowments from the Ursula Wirz Foundation and project-related funding from a series from further foundations and sponsors. In its programmes dedicated to early music, the ensemble performs on a set of 14 period instruments based on Baroque models, donated by the Bernese Guilds, the Burgergemeinde of Berne and and the Hans & Verena Krebs Foundation.