Freiburger Barockorchester

Passionate, authentic, full of joy – under this motto, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra (FBO) has ranked among the world’s leading ensembles in the field of historically informed performance practice for almost four decades. Founded by graduates of the Freiburg University of Music, the ensemble represents a wide stylistic spectrum from the Baroque to the Romantic period and is distinguished by its tireless curiosity towards both well-known and lesser-known repertoire.

With around 100 concerts each year, the orchestra appears on the world’s most prestigious stages – from the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg and the Musikverein in Vienna to the Lincoln Center in New York – and at renowned festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, the Rheingau Music Festival, and the Gstaad Menuhin Festival. Its own subscription series in Freiburg, Stuttgart, and Berlin underline its close ties to the German-speaking world.

The FBO is led by its concertmasters Cecilia Bernardini and Gottfried von der Goltz. In larger projects, the ensemble collaborates with internationally renowned artists such as Kristian Bezuidenhout, Principal Guest Director, Pablo Heras-Casado, René Jacobs, Sir Simon Rattle, and Isabelle Faust. More than 130 CD productions, many of them award-winning, document the artistic radiance of the orchestra.

The 2025/26 season will be marked by programmatic variety and outstanding collaborations. A particular focus will be on opera: at the Karlsruhe Handel Festival, the ensemble will perform a new production of George Frideric Handel’s Tamerlano under the direction of René Jacobs. Also under his baton, a European tour with Antonio Vivaldi’s Il Giustino will take the orchestra to Belgium and Spain.

Together with cellist Nicholas Altstaedt, the FBO will present works of the Viennese Classical period as part of its own concert series at the Bodensee Festival. In addition, in partnership with the Belgian vocal ensemble Vox Luminis, it will devote itself to a thematically conceived program of wedding cantatas from the far-reaching Bach family of composers.

The established subscription series in Freiburg, Stuttgart, and Berlin will be continued with new programs. They reflect the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra’s ongoing engagement with historical performance practice and its commitment to bringing both familiar and rediscovered works to life with nuance and vitality.