Camerata Salzburg

Camerata Salzburg is one of the world’s oldest and most tradition-rich chamber orchestras. It is one of the core ensembles at the Salzburg Festival and the Mozartwoche Festival and has its own subscription cycle in the Great Hall of the Mozarteum Foundation. It is also regularly invited to perform at the most important venues, such as the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Suntory Hall in Tokyo.

In 2025/26 it has performed at the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad, the Festival of Nations and the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival, and appears with Lukas Sternath under Antonello Manacorda at the Carinthian Summer Festival. In June 2026 the orchestra toured Japan and South Korea with the programme ‘Mozart in Asia’. In October it will undertake a tour to Central and South America.

Since 2016, the musicians of Camerata have governed their own artistic direction. The orchestra is led alternately by its two concertmasters, Gregory Ahss and Afanasy Chupin, as firsts among equals. The ensemble also works with guest conductors including Ivor Bolton, Maxim Emelyanychev, Philippe Herreweghe, François Leleux, Finnegan Downie Dear and Thomas Hengelbrock.

Above all, it has been the characteristic ‘Salzburg Mozart sound’ that has made Camerata a cultural ambassador and international figurehead for Mozart’s hometown for many years. The core of its repertory has been the work of Salzburg’s genius loci Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, as well as other music of the Viennese Classical era. Its repertory currently reaches from the Baroque to the 20th century, and on to contemporary music, including commissioned compositions and world premieres. Today the orchestra is known worldwide for its powerful, vibrant and deeply moving performing style.

The Camerata enjoys close collaborations with its artistic partners Janine Jansen and Julian Prégardien. In 2025/26 it has also worked with Julia Hagen, Hayato Sumino, Alexander Sitkovetsky, François Leleux, Václav Luks, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Maxim Emelyanychev, Rudolf Buchbinder, Kian Soltani, Maria João Pires and Fazıl Say.

When Bernhard Paumgartner founded the orchestra in 1952, the artistic credo of each individual member was clear: making music independently with a sense of community, a maxim the orchestra and its members live by today. Its great inspirers and longstanding directors Bernhard Paumgartner, Sándor Végh, Roger Norrington, Leonidas Kavakos and Louis Langrée all shaped the sound of Camerata.

The Camerata is committed to promoting young talent, and regular education programmes take the musicians to perform in kindergartens and schools.

Over the course of 75 years, Camerata has made numerous recordings. Recent releases on the Deutsche Grammophon label have included recordings with Hélène Grimaud (Mozart, Silvestrov, Schumann) under Giovanni Guzzo and with Kian Soltani (Schumann) under Gregory Ahss. In February 2026 the Stravinsky album Muses under the direction of Giovanni Guzzo was released by the label Channel Classics.