Munich Chamber Orchestra

The Munich Chamber Orchestra is a German chamber orchestra based in Munich. Its primary concert venue is the Prinzregententheater, Munich. The MKO also gives concerts in Munich at such venues as the Pinakothek der Moderne and the Schwere Reiter (de), and at the Muffathalle (de) during the Munich Biennale.

Christoph Stepp founded the MKO in 1950. Hans Stadlmair was the artistic director from 1956 to 1995, and conducted the orchestra in over 4000 concerts, including international tours and collaborations with the Bayerischer Rundfunk. From 1995 to 2006, Christoph Poppen was principal conductor of the MKO. Alexander Liebreich has been the principal conductor and artistic director from 2006–2016. Clemens Schuldt has been principal conductor since the 2016/17 season.

The MKO has regularly commissioned music from such contemporary composers as Erkki-Sven Tüür, Martin Jaggi, Thomas Larcher, Iannis Xenakis and Wolfgang Rihm, among others. In 1971 the orchestra premiered Wilhelm Killmayer's fin al punto, composed for its 20th anniversary. The MKO and the Philharmonie Essen commissioned Jörg Widmann's ad absurdum, Concerto for trumpet in B♭ and small orchestra, which premiered on 18 January 2006 with soloist Sergei Nakariakov. In 2010 the orchestra premiered Peter Ruzicka's TRANS.

The MKO was awarded the Musikpreis der Landeshauptstadt München in 2000, the prize for the best concert programming from the Deutscher Musikverleger-Verband (German association of music publishers) for the seasons 2001/02 and 2005/06, the Cannes Classical Award in 2002, the prize of the Christoph und Stephan Kaske Foundation (de) in 2002 with Christoph Poppen, the Ernst von Siemens Förderpreis in 2001 to 2003. In 2008, the Bayerische Akademie der Schönen Künste awarded the prize Neues Hören (New Listening) of the foundation Neue Musik im Dialog (New Music Dialogue) for the successful delivery of contemporary music to the chamber orchestra. Wikipedia