We have enjoyed our long-standing collaboration with the Folkwang University of the Arts.

Folkwang Gala 2025

Bochumer Symphoniker

Qigang Chen , born in China and coming to Europe in 1984, is considered the last student of Olivier Messiaen. In five very short movements, the orchestra portrays the "Five Elements" ("Wu Xing") according to Chinese philosophy: water, wood, fire, earth and metal - in that order. The wood and metal sound of the orchestral percussion plays an important role.

Myth and Nature

Anneliese Brost Musikforum Ruhr

One day, the cheeky and naughty farm boy Nils is transformed into a gnome and, together with the white gander Marten, he joins a flock of wild geese and flies away. On this journey he experiences exciting adventures and discovers how beautiful his home country Sweden is. Will he manage to become a "normal" human boy again

Nils Holgersson

Franz Schubert's B minor Symphony is the epitome of "not finishing" - we therefore know it as the Unfinished. It used to be called his last or Eighth Symphony, as it was only discovered more than 30 years after Schubert's death. Today it is called the Seventh, as it was written before the (completed) Great C major Symphony. We will never know why Schubert left it unfinished - he stopped working on a third movement. In any case, it would not have been easy for Schubert to follow up the marvel of the first two movements with something of equal value. Seen in this way, the Unfinished also has something complete about it.

Unfinished

The short prelude to the third act of Wagner's opera "Lohengrin" is a lively and festive piece - the ideal concert overture. In the opera, this prelude leads directly into the famous bridal chorus ("Treulich geführt"). Incidentally, "Lohengrin" was first performed in 1850 in the Goethe city of Weimar on Goethe's 101st birthday.

Heroes with Violin

At our New Year's Eve and New Year's concerts we will bring you into the New Year in high spirits - together with the exceptional 20-year-old talent from Bochum, the excellent violinist Darius Preuß.

New Year's concerts

During the last week of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, the laureates withdraw to the Queen Elisabeth Chapel. Their final farewell to Belgian audiences comes in the form of the traditional laureates concert in the Queen Elisabeth Hall, during which they perform seminal milestones from the violin repertoire. Don’t miss this appointment with the future and an opportunity to see a new generation of star violinists at work after their defining performances during this world-renowned competition, before they embark on an international career!

EPSG:4326

Laureates of the Queen Elisabeth Competition

Queen Elisabeth Hall

Concertgebouw Brugge

Centre for Fine Arts

The Sound of Nature: The British composer George Fenton has created an equally impressive soundtrack for the BBC's visually stunning nature documentary series. His "Planet Earth" music is performed live in concert, surrounded by the other elements of fire, air and water. The German baroque grandmaster Georg Friedrich Händel will perform his "Fireworks Music", which was commissioned by the British King George II and first impressed audiences as open-air music in London's Green Park in 1749. The great US film composer Max Steiner breathes a completely different atmosphere in his title music for the legendary film classic "Gone with the Wind" and the stirring Czech romantic Antonín Dvořák also contributes a spookily beautiful fairytale water music with his symphonic poem "The Water Sprite".

Planet Earth

Alte Oper

New Year's Eve Concerts

The "Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun" was the breakthrough for Claude Debussy in 1894, both for musical Impressionism and modern music in general. For a "symphonic poem," the roughly ten-minute work is quite short. It is introduced by an ascending and descending flute melody and becomes the nucleus of the piece. What was new about it was the dissolution of conventional tonality. Debussy was inspired to create this by a Javanese gamelan orchestra he had heard at the Paris World's Fair in 1889, whose music "made our tonic and dominant appear like ghosts."

Expectation

Tatata Taaaa! Three short, one long. No symphony opening in music history has probably been as famous as this one. They say it sounds like a knock. What fate is supposedly knocking at the door here? Unrestful times in Vienna, a Napoleon ready for a riot, a Beethoven in poor health… that's the shaky starting point. But much more importantly: How does such immortal music come about in such times? We investigate the matter and throw ourselves into rousing sounds with great pleasure.

#Beethoven - Great music from wild times

Life and Fate

Schauspielhaus Bochum

Sergei Prokofiev was in New York when the Zimro Ensemble, a sextet of his former classmates from St. Petersburg, performed there. The group specialized in Jewish music and performed their program several times at Carnegie Hall. Asked to write an overture for the sextet, Prokofiev wrote a roughly ten-minute piece with the character of klezmer music—with a lively theme for the clarinet and a more contemplative theme for the cello. In 1934, Prokofiev also arranged the "Overture on Hebrew Themes" for a small orchestra.

Tung-Chieh Chuang

Events

Upcoming events

Dec 31, 2025 - Jan 2, 2026

New Year's Eve Concerts · Bochumer Symphoniker

17 - 18 Jan, 2026

Expectation · Bochumer Symphoniker

Mar 1, 2026

#Beethoven - Great music from wild times · Bochumer Symphoniker

Apr 25 - May 3, 2026

Life and Fate · Bochumer Symphoniker

2 - 3 May, 2026

What does my name mean to you? · Bochumer Symphoniker

Past events

Oct 3, 2025

Folkwang Gala 2025 · Bochumer Symphoniker

5 - 6 Jul, 2025

Myth and Nature · Bochumer Symphoniker

Future and recently performed repertoire

Conductor in Symphony No. 10 by Shostakovich

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Violin Concerto No. 3 by Saint-Saëns

Antwerp Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Pavane by Fauré

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Prélude à L'après-midi d'un faune by Debussy

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Violin Concerto No. 1 by Prokofiev

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Violin Concerto No. 1 by Bruch

Antwerp Symphony Orchestra

Conductor in Flute Concerto by Nielsen

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Polovtsian Dances by Borodin

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in D'un matin de printemps by Boulanger

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Overture on Hebrew Themes by Prokofiev

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Ein Heldenleben by Strauss

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in La valse by Ravel

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Introduction et rondo capriccioso by Saint-Saëns

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Le sacre du printemps by Stravinsky

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Variations on a Rococo Theme for Cello and Orchestra by Tchaikovsky

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Gone with the Wind by Steiner

hr-Sinfonieorchester

Conductor in Planet Earth by Fenton

hr-Sinfonieorchester

Conductor in Music for the Fireworks by Händel

hr-Sinfonieorchester

Conductor in The Aquarius by Dvořák

hr-Sinfonieorchester

Conductor in Gazebo Dances by Corigliano

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Rhapsody No. 1 for violin and orchestra by Bartók

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Prelude to Act 3 by Wagner

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in “Distant Light” Concerto for Violin and String Orchestra by Vasks

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G major by Ravel

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Valse Lente by Schreker

Bochumer Symphoniker

Conductor in Concerto for Accordion Duo and String Orchestra by Sowa

Bochumer Symphoniker

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