Festival Orchestra

THE FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA

A specially assembled festival orchestra came together for the first time, at Richard Wagner’s instigation, for the 1876 Bayreuth Festival. For the premiere of “Parsifal” in 1882 on the occasion of the second Bayreuth Festival, the Bavarian King Ludwig II placed the orchestra and choir of the Munich Court Theatre at the Festival’s disposal. The Munich Court orchestra also played for the 1883 and 1884 Festivals. Since 1886 there has been a festival orchestra each year, consisting of the best musicians from other musical ensembles. So it has remained to this day: around 200 musicians from distinguished orchestras in Germany and abroad come together every year for the Bayreuth Festival. Although the festival orchestra is newly engaged every year, numerous musicians have been part of the festival for many years and consider this to be their second artistic home.

STRINGS

First Concertmasters

Juraj Cizmarovic
Konradin Seitzer

Assistant Concertmasters

Stanko Madić
Hartmut Schill

1st VIOLIN

Riccardo Caraceni
Yusi Chen
Mladen Drenic
Michael Durner
Thomas Eisner
Martin Emmerich
Ingrun Findeis-Gröpler
Clemens Flieder
Wolfgang Hammar
Magdalena Heinz
Sorin Ionescu
Torsten Janicke
Takeshi Kanazawa
Eduard Marashi
Mugurel Markos
Thomas Mehlin
Alberto Menchen
Jakub Nowak
Ulrich Poschner
Michael Rein
Peter Riehm
André Robles Field
Anja Röhn
Phillip Roy
Ines-Sonja Schneider
Claudia Schönemann
Anselmo Simini
Dan Tarna
Anselm Telle
Michael Wild
Rahel Wittiber

2nd VIOLIN

Raúl Teo Arias, principal
Daniel Draganov, principal
Nadine Contini, assistant principal
Karl Heinrich Niebuhr, assistant principal
Ania Bara
Lucas Barr
Ulrike Bassenge
Madelene Berg
Nemanja Bugarcic
Volker Droysen von Hamilton
Orlando Fellows
Martin Fraustadt
Emilia Gausse
Jochen Gröpler
Johannes Hupach
Camille Joubert
Jürgen Karwath
Annette Köhler
Laure Kornmann
Carin Lea
Minah Lee
Anna Matz
Ionut Pandelescu
Sascha Riedel
Gideon Schirmer
Julia Schleicher
Regine Schmitt-Welsch
Marie Šparovec
Katrin Strobelt
Anikó Katharina Szathmáry
Cécile Tête
Joachim Ulbrich
Olga Yuchanan

VIOLA

Hermann Menninghaus, solo viola
Gerd Grötzschel, solo viola
Christian Atanasiu, assistant principal
Öykü Canpolat, assistant principal
Olof von Gagern, assistant principal
Hendrik Vornhusen, assistant principal
Emilia Andresen
Anne-Aurore Anstett
Ivan Bezpalov
Frank Dumdey
Roland Henn
Antje Kaufmann
Anne Köhler
Thomas Koslowsky
Linda Leharová
Rainhard Lutter
Iris Mühlnickel
Daniela Pletschacher
Guillem Selfa Oliver
Christiane Silber
Martin Smýkal
Momchil Terziyski
Jean-Marc Vogt
Tilbert Weigel

VIOLONCELLO

Léonhard Frey-Maibach, solo cello
Arthur Hornig, solo cello
Christoph Spehr, solo cello
Johannes Mirow, assistant principal
Tatjana Uhde, assistant principal
Jörg Breuninger
Angela Chang
David Delacroix
Friedmann Dressler
David Drost
Sebastian Gaede
Ulrich Horn
Attila Hündöl
Zoé Karlikow
Gayane Khachatryan
Elise Kleimberg
Dietmar Korth
Franz Lichtenstern
Jan Mischlich
Jan Pas
Konstantin Pfiz
Csaba Rácz
Anja Sophia Rapp
Ulrike Seifert
Hendrik Then-Bergh
Oliver Wenhold

DOUBLE BASS

Christoph Schmidt, principal
Christoph Anacker, principal
Matthias Weber, principal
Ilka Emmert, assistant principal
Florian Heidenreich, assistant principal
Konstanze Brenner
Michael Péus
Teja Andresen
Rayle Bligh
Lars Jakob
Heinrich Lademann
Anselm Legl
Dennis Pientak
Jan-Hendrik Rosenkranz
Wouter Swinkels
Nina Valcheva
Emilio Yepes Martinez

WOODWIND AND BRASS

FLUTE and PICCOLO

Eduardo Belmar
Vukan Milin
Sebastian Wittiber
Jérémie Abergel
Franziska Both
Matthew Higham
Friederike Krost-Lutzker
Daniel Lampert
Manfred Ludwig

OBOE and ENGLISH HORN

Clara Dent-Boganyi
Olivier Doise
José Luís García Vegara
Guilherme Filipe Sousa
Andrew Malcolm
Beate Aanderud
Martin Frutiger
Michael Andreas Höfele
Yumi Kurihara (Tannhäuser english horn solo)
Rixon Thomas (Tristan english horn solo on the scene)

CLARINET and BASS CLARINET

Gaspare Vittorio Buonomano
Johannes Gmeinder
Wolfram Große
Blaž Šparovec
Christian Seibold
Peter Pfeifer
Matthias Höfer
Dieter Velte

BASSOON and CONTRABASSOON

Mathias Baier
Joachim Huschke
Tobias Pelkner
Jörg Petersen
David Spranger
Sonja Starke
Janne Pulkkinen
Florian Raß

HORN and TUBA

Pierre Azzuro
Ozan Çakar
Carsten Carey Duffin (Siegfried Siegfriedruf)
Dániel Ember
Mahir Kalmik
Ingo Klinkhammer
Bernhard Krug (Götterdämmerung Siegfriedruf)
Norbert Pförtsch-Eckels
Quirin Rast
Thomas Ruh
Stef van Herten
Hanno Westphal
Markus Wittgens
David Brox
Frank Demmler
Adrian Diaz Martinez
Stefan Fink
Armanda Kleinbart
Gergely Molnár
Thomas Sonnen
Frank Stephan
Josef Weissteiner
Johannes Winkler
Horst Ziegler

TRUMPET

Peter Dörpinghaus
Matthias Kowalczyk
Mathias Müller
Martin Wagemann
Thomas Forstner
Florian Rast
Thomas Schleicher
Matthias Seitz

BASS TRUMPET

Jonathon Ramsay
Tomáš Trnka

TROMBONE and BASS TROMBONE

Andreas Kraft
Felix Eckert
Jeroen Mentens
Frank Szathmáry-Filipitsch
Bernd Mazelka
Rainer Vogt
Uwe Leonbacher
Matthias Kamleiter

CONTRABASS TUBA

Stefan Kühndorf
Hugues Spielmann

HARPS

Gabriele Bamberger
Christoph Bielefeld
Ursula Fatton
Martina Holler
Lilo Kraus
Ruth-Alice Marino (Tannhäuser solo)
Manuela Randlinger-Bilz
Anne Riedel
Christine Steinbrecher
Gabriella Victoria
Angelika Wagner
Jie Zhou

TIMPANI AND PERCUSSION

Holger Brust
Robert Cürlis
Werner Kühn
Mathias Müller
Sebastian Schnitzler
Wolfgang Gindlhumer
Jens Herz
Björn Matthiessen
Alexander Schubert
Johannes Wippermann

STAGE BAND

TRUMPET

Andreas Heusing
Uwe Berning
Bosco Pohontsch
Christoph Schröder
Cyrill Gussaroff
Antonio Villanueva Treviño

TROMBONE

Christoph Beyer
Matthias Lampl
Thomas Lischke
Alexander Schmidt-Ries
Luc Scholtes

Administration and Planning

Angelika von Wechmar

Stage Manager

Christoph Glaßmann
Antonio Marino
Matias Mucchi Alonso
Gordon Volquardsen