Johannes Klumpp
is Principal Conductor of the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen. Here, as well as in numerous international guest appearances, he has the opportunity to give free rein to his love of Mozart. With new concert formats, he has succeeded in attracting wider attention to “his” orchestra. His gift of audience communication brings new audiences to classical music.

Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen
During this 2017/18 anniversary season, the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen can look back on sixty years of success. Audiences admire the orchestra for its concerts at the highest level, other orchestras for its exceptionally-trained musicians. Founded upon the idea–still current–of offering a professional-level experience to final-year students as a preparation for their careers, approximately 600 musicians to date have been accepted in opera and concert orchestras in Germany and abroad.

The Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen consists of sixteen graduates and students from music universities in North Rhine-Westphalia who may remain with the ensemble until the age of thirty-five. It has been under the artistic direction of Principal Conductor Johannes Klumpp since the 2013/14 season.

The exceptional quality of the ensemble is attested to by numerous appearances in Germany and abroad in addition to several CD productions. The Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen has earned its highly-respected place among the German chamber orchestras in performance at the Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival, Mozartfest Schwetzingen, and Rheingau Musik Festival. Concert tours have taken the young musicians to Switzerland, Austria, Lithuania, the Netherlands, and Algeria. It enjoys regular tour collaborations with the Essen Bach Choir and other choirs.

The ensemble’s support of outstanding young musicians is not confined to the orchestra members. In its selection of guest artists invited to perform with the orchestra, the focus is also on young soloists and conductors who are given a platform for their artistic work. Their guest list includes such prominent names as Nils Mönkemeyer, Herbert Schuch, HAUSCHKA, Sabine Meyer, Christoph Eschenbach, Christian Tetzlaff, Vadim Repin, Maria Kliegel, Reinhard Goebel, Gottfried von der Goltz, and Lorenzo Viotti.

The ensemble tailors its programs to an audience that values both new and established chamber music works performed by a young and ambitious ensemble. Since its first performance in 1958, the Folkwang Kammerorchester Essen has been the only orchestra to perform regularly at the historic Villa Hügel, while also continuing to initiate concerts at new venues throughout the region. New regular concert venues of the FKO include the UNESCO world cultural heritage site Zeche Zollverein, Lichtburg Essen, Borbeck Palace, and Lighthouse Essen.