Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra in 2015 celebrated its 90 anniversary. As an important part of the rich and varied cultural heritage of the city of Dubrovnik and the Republic of Croatia, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra continues to perform in the unique ambients of its town such as the most famous Rector’s Palace Atrium, city churches and squares. Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra throughout years continues performing with the greatest local and international artists interpreting the works of masters of baroque, classical and romantic period, not only in Dubrovnik, but on its tours around the world too. This year, our orchestra published an impressive promotional video everyone should see!
The Orchestra in the City of Dubrovnik has been in operation continuously since 1924, initially as a semi-professional organization, and subsequently as a fully professional orchestra. The Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra continues the long and significant musical tradition that had already been developed in the early years of the Republic of Dubrovnik (1358-1808). The Orchestra was founded by a group of young, enthusiastic students of the Gymnasium school in Dubrovnik. The original name of the Orchestra (Dubrovnik Orchestra) was changed in 1925 to the Dubrovnik Philharmonic Orchestra. During the ensuing years, the Orchestra’s membership has steadily increased and the Orchestra’s technical sophistication allowed the ensemble to perform more sophisticated and demanding musical works, often under famous conductors including Tadeusz Sygietynski, Josef Vlach Vruticky, playing the first performances of Ludomir Michael Rogowski’s pieces. In 1946, the members of the Orchestra, aware of a pressing need to offer a more competitive product to an increasing and diverse tourist market, formed another musical body called the Dubrovnik City Orchestra. The Dubrovnik City Orchestra was the city’s first fully professional orchestra, performing mostly for the Dubrovnik Summer Festival (formed in the 1950s). For a short time the Orchestra was called the Dubrovnik Festival Orchestra. With chief conductor at that time, Nikola Debelić, the orchestra in 70s achieves a number of successful tours (Switzerland, Germany, Belgium, Netherlands) and in cooperation with Agency Columbia Artists Man from New York goes to a three-month long tour to USA and Canada (over 120 concerts with soloists Vladimir Krpan, Ivo Pogorelić, Valter Dešpalj…). In 1992 the Orchestra renamed itself for the last time as the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra. Find out more @ their official web page.
Its members are musicians with academic education, mostly from the Zagreb Academy of Music. Its list of concerts is very long, including tours all over Europe and in the USA. Orchestra collaborated with famours conductors and soloists such as: Lovro von Matačić, Antonio Janigro, Zubin Mehta, Kiril Kondrashin, Ernst Marzendorfer, Milan Horvat, Pavle Dešpalj, Anton Nanut, Nikola Debelić, David Ojstrah, Lord Yehudi Menuhin, Mstislav Rostropovich, Svjatoslav Richter, Henryk Szeryng, Uto Ughi, Christoph Eschenbach, Stefan Milenkovich, Ivo Pogorelić, Dubravka Tomšič, Dunja Vejzović, Ruža Pospiš Baldani, Monika Leskovar, Radovan Vlatković, Mischa Maisky, Yuri Bashmet, Julian Rachlin, Michel Legrand, Anton Nanut, Ivo Dražinić, Alun Francis, Maxim Fedotov, Maxim Vengerov, Nicholas Milton, Christoph Campestrini, Dmitry Sinkovsky and many others.
In last few years the Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra performed in the most prestigious venues all over the world (Kennedy Center – Washington, New York, Seattle, Kurhaus – Bad Eberbach, Lisinski – Zagreb, Chateu Veves, Versailles, Basel, Medan – Jakarta, Musikverein Goldener Saal – Wien etc). In 2005, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra was awarded the «Milka Trnina» prize, which is the most prestigious musical branch award in Croatia, and in 2015, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra received a special acknowledgement for contributing repute and promotion of Dubrovnik-Neretva County in Croatia and the world.
Also, Dubrovnik Symphony Orchestra in last couple of years organizes several festivals and music cycles such as International Opera Arias Festival “Tino Pattiera”, International Late Summer Music Festival Dubrovnik, Autumn Music Variety and baroque music cycle Orlando Furioso.
