Frankfurter Opern und Museumorchester

The Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester (Frankfurt Opera House and Museum's Orchestra) is the resident orchestra of the Frankfurt am Main City Opera House, Germany. Its somewhat peculiar name is derived from the series of "Museum Concerts", organized by the Frankfurter Museumsgesellschaft since 1808. The orchestra is ranked as an "A-list" ensemble under the German TVK regulations. Its music director and principal conductor is Sebastian Weigle.

With a history spanning more than 200 years, the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester is one of Germany's oldest symphonic ensembles. It was founded in the late 18th century as the orchestra of the Frankfurt Municipal Opera. In addition to playing in the opera house, the orchestra maintains a series of 10 subscription programs per season (each played twice, on Sundays 11 a.m. and Mondays 8 p.m. CET, respectively), performed at the Alte Oper Frankfurt - the former opera house that is now run as a concert hall.

From the very beginning, the orchestra attracted top-of-the-line conductors and musicians. Noted German composer-violinist Louis Spohr was the second principal conductor (1817-1819) of the Museumsorchester; his successors included such luminaries as Clemens Krauss, William Steinberg, Franz Konwitschny, Georg Solti, Christoph von Dohnányi and Michael Gielen.

Other conductors/composers of note under whose baton the orchestra have been playing since the late 19th century are Gustav Mahler, Richard Strauss, Arthur Nikisch, Hans Pfitzner, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Hans Knappertsbusch, Hermann Abendroth, Bruno Walter and George Szell.

Richard Strauss' large-scale tone-poems Ein Heldenleben and Also sprach Zarathustra were both premiered by the Frankfurter Opern- und Museumsorchester.

Many leading soloists have appeared with the orchestra, beginning with Johannes Brahms and Clara Schumann in the 19th century. From 1915 to 1923, distinguished composer-violist Paul Hindemithserved as concertmaster of the Opern- and Museumsorchester. Its repertoire includes all major operatic and symphonic works from Baroque to contemporary music.

In the 2005/2006 and 2006/2007 seasons, the Museumsorchester was voted one of the three top German opera orchestras in the country, selected by the leading operatic magazines in Germany. For the 2007/2008 season, the noted German periodical Die deutsche Bühne voted the Frankfurt Opera the best opera house in Germany. Finally, in 2009, the respected music-industry magazine Opernweltvoted the Opern- und Museumsorchester Orchestra of the Year among all the German opera- and theatre orchestras, an honour the orchestra shares with the Bayerisches Staatsorchester; in both 2010 and 2011 the orchestra was again named "Orchestra of the Year". Wikipedia