STUTTGART CHAMBER ORCHESTRA
The orchestra, founded by Karl Münchinger in 1945, quickly established a reputation for its J. S. Bach interpretations, an attempt to liberate this music from the influence of the Romantic Age.Following a triumphant Paris debut in 1949 as the first German orchestra to perform there post-war,the success of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra over the next fifty years is reflected in the frequentinvitations to perform all over the world and to participate in the celebrated Salzburg-, Edinburgh-, Prague Spring-, and Colmar festivals among many others. The comprehensive discography of the ensemble includes bench-mark recordings of Bach's Brandenburg Concertos and orchestral suites,the St. Matthew Passion (which was awarded the Grand Prix de Disque), and a complete recording
of Mozart's later symphonies.

After Karl Münchinger's retirement, the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra worked with guest conductors such as Trevor Pinnock, Frans Brüggen and Vaclav Neumann and with soloists such as Frank Peter Zimmermann, Janos Starker, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Christian Zacharias, and Jan Garbarek. The orchestra has also played regularly for Helmuth Rilling, the artistic director of the International Bach Academy Stuttgart and of the Gächinger Kantorei.

Critically acclaimed series of 22 early and middle period Haydn Symphonies performed in 8 concerts with conductor Ferdinand Leitner in 1988, and 9 concerts of early Mozart orchestral and concerted works directed by Dennis Russell Davies in 1991 at the European Music Festival Stuttgart, were landmarks in the orchestra's artistic regeneration. First performances of works, some of them specially commissioned, by composers ranging from Henri Dutilleux to Philip Glass, and recent recorded revivals of rococo opera by Niccolò Jommelli under Frieder Bernius are witness to the orchestra's versatility and readiness to venture down new paths.

Dennis Russell Davies, appointed in 1995 to the chief conductorship of this, the oldest of European chamber orchestras in succession to the Austrian Martin Sieghart, has been associated with the orchestra since 1989. This cooperation is destined to continue until at least 2009 with a projected "Haydn Decade", a cycle of all 107 Haydn Symphonies, to be performed and recorded in Stuttgart, courtesy of generous sponsorship from Daimler Benz, beginning in November 1998.

During the nineties, the ensemble has made frequent extended tours to the USA, Canada and Japan, with other guest appearances in Australia, South Korea and Greece, one of the most felicitous developments recently being the increased number of performances the orchestra has given internationally under the directorship of its own concertmaster Benjamin Hudson.

Especially with the recording label ECM, orchestra and chief conductor, have in these last years made several intercontinentally lauded CD recordings featuring major works by Giya Kancheli, Schnittke, Vasks and Shostakovich, as well as solo collaborations with violist Kim Kashkashian and pianist Keith Jarrett.

MICHAEL HOFSTETTER, director
Michael Hofstetter has been head director of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra (Orquesta de Cámara de Stuttgart) since September 2006. He was born in München, Germany, and started his career in Wiesbaden and Giessen theaters, from which he is the musical director. He is now one of the most solicited youngest directors. He made his name, particularly for specializing in Baroque music and expertise in authentic interpretations, thanks to his intervention on operas like ‘Alcina’ and Handel’s ‘Giulio Cesare in Egitto’, working with Herbert Wernicke, stage director.

Alter conducting in 2000 a new ‘Tristan and Isolde’ production at the Dortmund Opera in Germany; he was named several times as Director of the Year as a result of the yearly poll conducted by the specialized magazine Opernwel among music critics. His devotion and enthusiasm for opera were rewarded with the Robert Stolz Medal.

Michael Hofstetter is also head director of the Geneva Camera Orchestra, Orquesta de Cámara de Ginebra (Suiza), and is regularly invited by important festivals, orchestras and opera houses, among them those in Hamburg and München, the Deutsche and Komische Operas in Berlin, the Norske Opera in Oslo and the Copenhagen’s Royal Opera; the Gran teatre de Liceu in Barcelona, the Welsh National Opera, the Basel (Basilea) Opera, and, for many years, he has been a guest to the Salzburg Festival.

During the 2006-2007 season, Hofstetter conducted, among others, the production of ‘Actus Tragicus’ at Stuttgart Nacional Opera, and ‘Hansel and Gretel’ by Humperdinck.

For the Handel Festival at Karlsruhe, in the Semper Opera in Dresden, he took to scene Handel’s ‘La Resurrezione’, an Oratorio.

At the Johannes Guttenberg University in Meinz (Maguncia), Michael Hofstetter taught Orchestra Conducting and Musica Antiqua. Since 2005 he is main director both of the Stuttgart Camera Orchestra and of the choir and orchestra of the Festival at Ludwigsburg Castle.

Benjamin Hudson, concertino

The American violinist Benjamin Hudson, born in the state of Illinois, spent much of his early life in California. His principal teacher was Donald Weilerstein, and he made further studies with Eudice Shapiro, Oscar Shumsky, Joseph Gingold, Joseph Silverstein and Henryk Szeryng. As a student at the University of Southern California , Hudson participated in the Heifetz and Piatigorsky masterclasses, and became the youngest member of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, at the time under the musical directorship of Neville Mariner.

Having moved to New York in the mid-seventies, Benjamin Hudson‘s musical activities became increasingly wide-ranging. The Coumbia String Quartet, which he formed in 1975, has been much praised for its excellent performances and recordings, particularly of contemporary music by composers such as Elliott Carter, Charles Wuorinen, Mario Davidovsky, Morton Feldman, Roger Sessions and John Cage. Concurrently, Hudson was for many years first violin with New York‘s premier contemporary chamber ensemble, Speculum Musicae. This latter ensemble won the first prize at the prestigious Naumburg Chamber Music Award, the most significant of several chamber music prizes accorded to groups in which Benjamin Hudson was involved. During these New York years, Benjamin Hudson, served as concertmaster with the Clarion Chamber Orchestra, the New York Pops, the Dance Theatre of Harlem and the Brooklyn Philharmonic, where he played under Dennis Russell Davies, the present chief conductor of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. He also performed as soloist and concertmaster with Lukas Foss, James Levine and Pierre Boulez.

Another facet of this verstile artist’s career has been his involvement with the early music scene beginning with performances and recordings with Reinhard Goebel and Musica Antiqua Köln in the mid-eighties. Hudson soon became leader of several New York Baroque groups and was appointed concertmaster to the Swedish Drottingholm Court Theatre Orchestra. In 1987 he became concertmaster-director of the Hanover Band in London, recording the complete Brandenburg Concerto cycle for EMI as well as many Haydn symphonies for Hyperion. With the Hanover Band, Benjamin Hudson was soloist in a highly acclaimed recording of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto on period instruments for Nimbus Records. The same label has recently released Hudson’s period instrument recording of the complete Beethoven Violin and Piano Sonatas with the pianist Mary Verney.

Since his appointment as concertmaster to the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra in 1995, Hudson has appeared many times as a soloist and director, and has already made first commercial recordings for the Tacet label with this ensemble. After leading this orchestra in Japan, and Korea in 1997, invitations have followed for further tours to England, Spain, France, New Zealand, Brazil, Japan and Switzerland under his directorship. Benjamin Hudson conducts half of the national and international concerts per season of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra. In March 2002 he recorded the complete edition of J.S. Bach's sonatas in a version for violin, guitar and basso continuo with the guitarist Eliot Fisk and the "Kunst der Fuge" with the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra for the Good International label.

Wolfgang Rudolf Kussmaul, second concertino
Second concertmaster of the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra

Wolfgang Kussmaul was born in 1953 in Mannheim as the youngest son of a German family of musicians. In 1970, after only five years of instruction with his father, he won the first national prize at the German music competition for children, “Jugend musiziert.” A year later he took home the first prize at the International Chamber Music Competition in Colmar, France. After his studies at the Mannheim Conservatory, he continued in Stuttgart as a master pupil of Ricardo Odnoposoff, passing the Solistenprüfung (Concert Diploma) in 1981. In between he took solo courses with Christian Ferras and Leonid Kogan in Nice and Paris. In 1977, Wolfgang Kussmaul was a prizewinner at the “Deutscher Hochschulwettbewerb” music competition in Cologne, and in the following year he won first prize at the “Südfunk-Wettbewerb” in Stuttgart. In 1981 he joined the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra as concertmaster, where he has performed solos under many renowned conductors like Münchinger, Leitner, Segal, Varga and especially Dennis Russell Davies. In addition, he has given solo performances with the German Bach Soloists. Since 1994, Wolfgang Kussmaul has been a visiting instructor at the Music Academy in Fukuoka, Japan.