The CAMERATA Salzburg
At home in Salzburg and around the world for 75 years: through its own concert series and as the resident ensemble of the Salzburg Festival and Mozart Week, the CAMERATA has left its mark on this city of music. As Salzburg’s cultural ambassador, it is also a regular guest on major international concert stages such as the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Philharmonie de Paris, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Shanghai Concert Hall.
As one of the world’s oldest and most traditional chamber orchestras, the CAMERATA bridges the past and the future, whilst remaining consistently innovative and inspiring. The orchestra, whose musicians currently hail from more than 20 nations, is particularly renowned for its distinctive sound in the Viennese Classical period, notably the music of its hometown’s famous son, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
In 1952, the Viennese conductor and musicologist Bernhard Paumgartner, who was based in Salzburg, founded the Camerata Academica as an ensemble comprising lecturers and students of the Mozarteum – with the vision of creating an ideal sound through the personal responsibility of each individual musician, in the highest sense of community. From the very beginning, under Paumgartner – renowned as a Mozart specialist – the CAMERATA devoted itself primarily to the works of the Salzburg composer. Both notable tours and recordings, such as the complete recordings of Mozart’spiano concertos, featuring Géza Anda as soloist in the 1960s and Sir András Schiff in the 1980s, established the orchestra firmly on the international music scene.
THE CAMERATA SOUND IS OUR VOICE.
MUSIC IS OUR LANGUAGE.
HUMANITY IS OUR IDEAL.
Sándor Végh, as chief conductor from 1978 to 1997, had the greatest influence on the development of the CAMERATA. Under his baton, Mozart’s operatic repertoire, as well as works by Haydn, Beethoven and Schubert, took on increasing significance. His philosophy – to approach every piece as if it were the chamber music interplay of a string quartet, entirely in keeping with Paumgartner’s vision – continues to shape the sound and style of the CAMERATA to this day. Invitations to perform as an orchestra at the Salzburg Festival enabled the ensemble to continue to grow. Sándor Végh was succeeded by Sir Roger Norrington, Leonidas Kavakos and Louis Langrée.
In 2016, as a logical consequence of its chamber orchestra tradition, the orchestra decided to take the reins into its own hands. Under the artistic direction of the ‘primi inter pares’, the CAMERATA has since been performing under its own management and with a democratic ethos – with its concertmasters Gregory Ahss and Afanasy Chupin, and, depending on the repertoire, in collaboration with guest conductors such as Ivor Bolton, Philippe Herreweghe, François Leleux, Finnegan Downie Dear and Thomas Hengelbrock.
A deep and lasting collaboration links the CAMERATA with its artistic partners, the violinist Janine Jansen and the tenor Julian Prégardien. In its 2026/27 anniversary season, ‘Listen more, hate less’, the CAMERATA will also be working with artists such as Rudolf Buchbinder, Sayaka Shoji, Yunchan Lim, Sunhae Im, Masato Suzuki, Sunwook Kim, Lukas Sternath, Antonello Manacorda, Arthur and Lucas Jussen, Finnegan Downie Dear, María Dueñas, Lionel Meunier, Vox Luminis, Alexander Malofeev, Kristian Bezuidenhout, Fazıl Say and others.
CAMERATA places particular emphasis on nurturing young talent and carries out intensive music education work through CAMERATA Young. Inclusive projects such as ‘Papageno Goes to School’, the ‘Concerts for Young and Old’ and the ‘Concert FOR EVERYONE – really everyone!’ bring the fascination of classical music to all sections of the population. CAMERATA also incorporates music education projects into its tours wherever possible.
Recent recordings for Deutsche Grammophon include performances with Hélène Grimaud (Mozart, Silvestrov, Schumann) conducted by Giovanni Guzzo, and with cellist Kian Soltani (Schumann) conducted by Gregory Ahss. The latest CD release, featuring chamber orchestral works by Igor Stravinsky, is due to be released by the Channel Classics label in early 2026.
