About
Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz is the largest and leading symphony orchestra in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate with its headquarters in Ludwigshafen am Rhein. She gives concerts in Rhineland-Palatinate as well as at home and abroad.
The orchestra includes 87 musicians from 16 nations (as of season 2018/2019). Chief conductor was Karl-Heinz Steffens until the 2017/2018 season. For the anniversary season 2019/2020 Michael Francis will be the chief conductor of the orchestra.
From 2011 to 2018 Michael Kaufmann had the Intentanzposten. Since 1 September 2018, Beat Fehlmann is artistic director of the orchestra.
In 1919 founded in Landau (Palatinate) an orchestral society, consisting of representatives of some Palatine cities, music clubs and private patrons, the "State Symphony Orchestra for Palatinate and Saarland". After the inflation in 1923, the orchestra had to be renovated and converted into a limited liability company. The "Landes-Sinfonie-Orchester" became the "Pfalzorchester" based in Ludwigshafen am Rhein. The restructuring initiated a phase of artistic success. As soloists and conductors came musicians of international standing to Ludwigshafen, as u. a. the violinists Adolf Busch and Georg Kulenkampff, also conductors like Hermann Abendroth and Richard Strauss. 1933 took place in the course of new task assignments the name change in "Saarpfalzorchester", 1941 until the war-related termination of the game operation in 1944 in "West Symphony Orchestra Westmark".
Soon after the end of the war the orchestra reorganized and a new artistic upswing began - from 1967 under the name "Philharmonic Orchestra of the Palatinate". Instead of the orchestra club, the state of Rhineland-Palatinate took over the sponsorship in 1974 - with a corresponding change of the orchestra name in "Pfälzische Philharmonie, Staatsorchester Rheinland-Pfalz". After the departure of Christoph Stepp, who has been in charge of the orchestra since 1960, after a short interregnum in 1978/1979, the orchestra's further consolidation of the orchestra company under the name Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz took place with the appointment of Christoph Eschenbach as formerly under the auspices of the state Rheinland-Pfalz.
Eschenbach intensified his contacts to international prominence, followed in 1983 by the conductor Leif Segerstam with concertante performances of operas (Ludwigshafen does not have its own opera company), much acclaimed premieres of works of New Music and the further expansion of orchestral guest appearances such as Russia and to England. In 1985, still in Segerstam's time, the orchestra moved into its new home - the Philharmonic in Ludwigshafen am Rhein.
As of 1992, Bernhard Klee, as orchestra leader, strengthened his commitment to New Music works, after him, from 1997, to Theodor Guschlbauer, who, as the "Palatine General Music Director", trained his Philharmonic Orchestra for internationally recognized versatility. On January 1, 1998, finally, the conversion of the Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz into a state enterprise.
After the departure of Theodor Guschlbauer in the summer of 2001, the following season had to be bridged by the obligation of guest conductors, until finally with the season 2002/2003 with the Finn Ari Rasilainen a new chief conductor was available. First guest conductor was George Pehlivanian, a native Lebanese.
Since 1 January 2007, the orchestra has been renamed "Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz".
From August 2009 until the end of the 2017/2018 season, Karl-Heinz Steffens, music director, steered the artistic destiny of the orchestra. For the first time as GMD on the podium he stood on 14 September 2009 in the Art Nouveau Festhalle Landau on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Staatsphilharmonie.