HaydnOrchestra Eisenstadt

In 1964 music lovers from Eisenstadt, Neusiedl am See and Mattersburg founded the Kammerorchester Joseph Haydn Eisenstadt. The initiative came from the then music officer Karl Gradwohl and the music educator Eduard Ehrenreich; the purpose was to cultivate the music of Joseph Haydn in Burgenland. In 2024 the orchestra celebrated its sixtieth anniversary with a sold-out gala concert in the Haydnsaal.

In the early years the programmes featured small-scale works. With the founding of the Joseph Haydn Conservatory and the expansion of Burgenland’s music school system the ensemble grew, and larger works of the Classical and Romantic repertoire were added. The change of name to Haydnorchester Eisenstadt, initiated in 2008 by chairwoman Katrin Gstöttenbauer, marked that development. Today the orchestra has around sixty permanent members: instrumental teachers, music students and committed amateurs, among them many young musicians.

Most of the concerts were conducted by the artistic directors Eduard Ehrenreich (1964 to 1981) and Wolfgang Lentsch (1981 to 2015), supported by the concertmasters Dorli Gradwohl and Johanna Ensbacher, whose work carried the development from chamber orchestra to symphonic ensemble.

At the beginning of the 2015/16 season Peter Schreiber took over the direction. A long-standing member and professional orchestral musician, he continues the established concert series and opens the programme to new ideas.

The orchestra’s home is Schloss Esterházy in Eisenstadt. Rehearsing and performing in the Haydnsaal, the very room in which Joseph Haydn worked with his princely court orchestra, shapes both the sound and the attitude of this ensemble.

Alongside its Burgenland venues the Haydnorchester has performed in Vienna and in other Austrian provinces. Concert tours have taken it to Hungary, Germany, France and Italy.

Supporting young musicians is a second major concern. Many have gained their first solo experience here, and the series “Junge SolistInnen lassen aufhorchen” is one of the orchestra’s hallmarks. Church music is a further fixed part of its work.

The Haydnorchester plays ten to fifteen concerts a season, spanning the Viennese Classics, the symphonic and concerto repertoire of the Romantic era, the great choral works, the music of the Strauss dynasty and contemporary compositions. The organisation is run by an eight-member board headed by chairman Friedrich Tinhof and Katrin Gstöttenbauer.