Utopia Orchestra

Source: utopia-orchestra.org

Utopia is an international festival orchestra founded by the conductor Teodor Currentzis to bring together the best musicians from all around the world. Utopia is structurally, financially, and organizationally independent of any other collectives and institutions. In its substance, Utopia is not so much an orchestra in the conventional sense of the word, but rather a special creative community, a team of like-minded people with a shared musical ideology. They join together to create without compromise what their musical imagination comes up with in order to find the best sound. Musicians from dozens of countries take part in the project.
The cast of the orchestra varies depending on the instruments stipulated in the score. Musicians from dozens of countries take part in the project, such as Armenia, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Chile, China, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kazakhstan, the Netherlands, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Switzerland, Turkey, the UK, Ukraine, the USA, Venezuela, and many others.
The first Utopia concerts were given in October 2022. The orchestra performed Igor Stravinsky’s and Maurice Ravel’s pieces in some of Europe’s most important venues supporting the project, namely the Philharmonie Luxembourg, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Wiener Konzerthaus, and also in the Berliner Philharmonie.
Since then, the Utopia Orchestra has gathered together five more times. Utopia performs in the largest concert halls in the world, such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Elbphilharmonie, the Philharmonie Luxembourg, the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus, the Athens Concert Hall Megaron, the Isarphilharmonie in Munich, and Santa Cecilia Hall in Rome.
In particular, in 2023 Utopia presented its interpretation of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 3, as well as the programme with Johannes Brahms’s Violin Concerto and Pyotr Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5, and made its debut at the Salzburg Festival with concert performances of Purcell’s The Indian Queen and Mozart’s c-Moll Messe. To work on this programme, Teodor also assembled the Utopia Choir, having invited 40 musicians from 14 countries singing in Europe’s leading theatres and ensembles. Those who have already experienced working with Utopia describe it as the ‘place of possibilities’ for artists eager to ‘share their love and passion’ to ‘harmoniously blend together’ and ‘sing as one voice’.
This summer, the Utopia orchestra and choir have come back to the Salzburg Festival to present Mozart – Da Ponte’s Don Giovanni staged by Romeo Castellucci and Johann Sebastian Bach’s sacred oratorio St. Matthew Passion. In 2024, Utopia also presented its interpretations of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 at Europe’s largest concert venues.
In 2023 Utopia became the resident orchestra of Funkhaus, one of the main music hubs in Berlin. It was built as a broadcasting centre for the Radio DDR, and today attracts a variety of musicians with its technical means and atmosphere. As part of their residency at the Funkhaus, the Utopia Orchestra and Choir conduct rehearsals, record CDs, perform symphonic and chamber concerts.
In winter 2025, the Utopia orchestra and choir conducted by Teodor Currentzis will participate in Peter Sellars’s production of Castor et Pollux at the Paris Opera. Also, in 2025 the orchestra will present Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 and Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with Alexandre Kantorow performing the solo part.