Thüringer Symphoniker Saalfeld-Rudolstadt

A court chapel serving the princes of Schwarzburg-Rudolstadt is documented from 1635, with Philipp Heinrich Erlebach among its early leaders; from 1808 Traugott Maximilian Eberwein used it to introduce Rudolstadt to Beethoven. The town's theatre had opened in 1793, and the chapel accompanied every opera given there. State orchestra status came in 1919; Otto Hartung and Hans Swarowsky conducted between the wars. The ensemble took its present form in 1992 by merging with the Saalfeld state symphony orchestra, itself founded in 1952, and Oliver Weder has been chief conductor since 1997. More than seventy concerts a year are divided between the two towns, and the players take their part in the Rudolstadt folk festival each summer.