Our Partners

The WDR Funkhausorchester

The WDR Funkhausorchester is surprisingly different with a wide array of genres, gems from musicals, operas and operetta, film music and unknown jewels from the classical era, as well as current streams such as symphonic jazz and even Rap and Dubstep Crossover. “Serious music” is just another color in our musical rainbow. The WDR Funkhausorchester presents new ways of hearing orchestral concerts, with stories and convincing concepts.

Our concert audiences don’t dwindle with age. We love to travel new and surprising musical roads – with innovative, imaginative concert programs and a wide offering of educational projects expertly tailored for specific age groups. Our fine balance of exciting programs and relaxing evenings is a hit with our fans but also opens the door for less experienced concertgoers.

The WDR Funkhausorchester performs together with international soloists and ensembles, but also works with and within other artistic disciplines such as film, dance, pantomime, visual arts and theater. Moderators, storytellers, even a comedian or a magician add a special note to our performances so that each concert becomes a unique experience. More recently, we’ve been reaching across political barriers, playing for instance side by side with classical musicians from Syria.

The WDR Funkhausorchester named for our spectacular, historic broadcasting center in the heart of Cologne is one of the most listened-to German orchestras. With our regular live broadcasts, radio series and recordings we strive to accompany our audience throughout their day.

Our guiding principle: Always worthwhile, Always close to our audience, There for Cologne, our region and the world.

Enrico Delamboye (Conductor)  

Dutch conductor Enrico Delamboye studied piano with Joop Celis and orchestra conducting with Jan Stulen, both at the Conservatory of Maastricht. Next to his studies, he also took viola lessons. He took part in Master classes of a.o. Roberto Benzi.   As of 2000/2001 he was engaged as conductor and repetitor at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden. In 2004 Enrico Delamboye was appointed ‘erster Kapellmeister’ at the Wuppertaler Bühnen.

His international break-through followed when Markus Stenz asked him to accept the position of principal conductor at the Oper Köln from 2005/6, where he conducted two to three new productions each season as well as several revivals. As of the 2009/10 season, he is the new GMD at the Theater Koblenz.  

Next to these engagements, Enrico Delamboye conducts at houses such as the Komische Oper and Philharmonie in Berlin, as well as the Concertgebouw Amsterdam. For several years, he was principal guest conductor at the Staatstheater Mainz. In addition, he is a regular guest at the Limburg Symphony Orchestra en recently conducted a new production of Faust at the Theater Basel. He made his debut at the Brabants Orkest conducting the season’s opening concerts, as well as the opening of the 2009/10 season at the Theater Basel, conducting Madama Butterfly.  

A German Kapellmeister conducts opera, ballet and symphonic programs. Enrico Delamboye has now built an extensive repertoire of around fifty symphonic pieces such as well-known symphonies and concerts of Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven and Brahms, but also Berio’s  Rendering, Ives’ Decoration Day, Ligeti’s Ramifications, and Schnittke’s viola concerto.  

Furthermore, he has already conducted fifty different operas, among which the well-known Mozart, Rossini, Verdi and Puccini operas; but also Fidelio, Carmen, Hänsel und Gretel, Werther, Les contes d’Hoffmann, Die verkaufte Braut, Die Fledermaus and Der Freischütz. He also conducts contemporary operas such as Berg’s Wozzeck, Amahl and the Night Visitors of Menotti and Weill’s Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny. His repertoire also includes Wagner’s Tannhäuser and Rheingold.  

He has been leading orchestra rehearsals and concerts, ballet and opera performances virtually every day during the past eight years, therefore Enrico Delamboye can be considered one of the more experienced conductors of his generation.

Stadt Köln

Representing one of the oldest cities in central Europe, Cologne is characterized by a long diversified musical history with a spectrum ranging from classical antiquity to the present day. All musical categories can be found here: from old music, via modern repertoires up to jazz, rock and pop. No other German city offers this colourful and exciting time travel of music from the Middle Ages to today.

Owing to the wide range of various music institutions, musical education opportunities and Cologne’s free music scene, the city provides an extraordinarily interesting and rich musical life of highest quality and complexity. In Cologne one of the largest and oldest academies of music in Europe, the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Cologne, and the Rheinische Musikschule are located, two excellent training institutions for musical careers.

As one of the leading concert halls in Germany the Cologne Philharmonic Hall was opened in 1986, since then staging numerous world-famous orchestras and ensembles. With the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne and the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne the city of Cologne presents two prestigious orchestras of international reputation. Moreover, the WDR with its WDR Rundfunkorchester, the Rundfunkchor and the Big Band enhances the cultural scene of Cologne as a musical venue.

Last not least, there is no other German city to be named as an example for such a highly vivid, creative and versatile musical life, the event of the International Music Competition Cologne as a magnificient highlight included. 

Association of Friends and Sponsors of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln

„Without music, life would be a mistake!“, Nietzsche wrote. How right he was! This is the motto the HfMT Association of Friends and Sponsors identify themselves with. They aim to communicate the outstanding cultural institution to the utmost number of music-interested citizens, to make them realize the joy and power of music themselves and for others. The Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln is one of the world’s foremost performing and pres-tigious music institution for higher education in Europe with a long-term tradition.The institute offers an excellent education covering the full range of artistic, musicological and music-pedagogical disciplines and categories as well as contemporary dance. It presents a well-known institution, which brings together lecturers and students from all over the world. For us it is a great pleasure and honour to cooperate as a partner at this interface between artistic development and creative performance.

• We support young talents by granting scholarschips and following their way of career.
• We sponsor internal and external competitions of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln.
• We finance excellent cultural events taking place in Cologne, such as opera productions, dance performances, the Mai Concerts in the Ursulinenkirche etc.
• We support the European Academy of Music and Performing Arts, „Palazzo Ricci“, and sponsor the Pre-College Cologne, the talent scout agency for most-talented kids and young musicians.
• We organize and finance the chamber music series „Spitzentöne“, in the programme of which international well-known musicians are presented, who have been profiting extensively from their HfMT education.
• We finance a truck for the transport of instruments and other music equipment.

Moreover, we constitute a very motivated partnership of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln with the intention to increase the popular knowledge of this institution. Thus, we are not only providing financial help but also our voluntary activities with regard to assistance and advise. Last not least, we plan exclusive events for our members, and every day we highly enjoy the large variety of concerts and very interesting lectures of the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz Köln .