Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin

Biography

The Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin (Akamus) celebrates its 40th anniversary in 2022. Founded in Berlin in 1982, the ensemble is now one of the world's leading chamber orchestras playing historically informed music.

For four decades, the orchestra has demonstrated its versatility with exciting concert projects, making significant contributions to the rediscovery of the music of Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach and Georg Philipp Telemann. Thoughtfully, the ensemble has also gradually expanded its core repertoire from the Baroque and Classical periods into the 19th century, most recently with its much-acclaimed cycle "Beethoven's Symphonies and their role models."

Whether in New York or Tokyo, London or Buenos Aires, Akamus is a much sought-after guest on the most important European and international concert stages.

Akamus is a central pillar in the cultural life of its home city of Berlin. For over 35 years, the orchestra has been playing a subscription series at the Konzerthaus Berlin. At the Berlin State Opera, the ensemble has regularly dedicated itself to Baroque opera since 1994. With its own concert series, Akamus has also been a regular guest at Munich's Prinzregententheater since 2012.

Akamus performs under the alternating direction of its two concertmasters, Bernhard Forck and Georg Kallweit, as well as selected conductors. The ensemble has a particularly close and long-standing artistic partnership with René Jacobs. In addition, Emmanuelle Haïm, Bernard Labadie, Paul Agnew, Diego Fasolis, Fabio Biondi, Rinaldo Alessandrini, and Christophe Rousset have recently conducted the orchestra.

Akamus also works regularly with internationally renowned soloists such as Isabelle Faust, Antoine Tamestit, Kit Armstrong, Alexander Melnikov, Anna Prohaska, Michael Volle, and Bejun Mehta. Together with the dance company Sasha Waltz & Guests, they created the internationally successful production of Henry Purcell's Dido & Aeneas, which has been widely performed from Berlin to Sydney. The most fruitful partnership with the RIAS Kammerchor Berlin deserves special mention: the collaboration, which has been equally formative for both ensembles, began 30 years ago. Akamus also maintains a close partnership with the Bavarian Radio Chorus.

The ensemble's recordings have won all the major recording awards, including the Grammy Award, Choc de l'année, and the Annual Prize of the German Record Critics. In 2006, the orchestra received the Telemann Prize of the City of Magdeburg, and in 2014, the Bach Medal of the City of Leipzig.