The Geneva Camerata was founded in 2013 by Céline Meyer and David Greilsammer. The journalist and filmmaker Jean-Philippe Rapp is the President of the orchestra's Board. Since its first season, the Geneva Camerata’s mission has been to open the classical music world to wider and younger audiences and to create unusual projects that bring together different styles, genres, and forms of art. Today, the orchestra gives forty concerts per season, ranging from baroque music performances on period instruments and classical concerts with international soloists, to collaborations with jazz and world music artists, and to special projects with dancers and actors.
In Geneva, the orchestra presents every season three main concert series. The first, called “Prestige Concerts” is the ensemble’s subscription series, in which the orchestra features international soloists from the worlds of baroque, classical, contemporary, and jazz music. The second, called “Crazy Concerts” is the orchestra’s most experimental series, in which the group presents shows that bring together classical music, pop, rock, techno, musicals, free jazz, and folk music. The third series, called “Family Concerts”, is the orchestra’s educational series, presenting to young audiences shows that feature opera singers, actors, magicians, shadow theatre artists, and circus artists. In addition to these three series, the orchestra goes regularly to hospitals, clinics, and shelters, in order to share music with those who are in need or in suffering.
Multidisciplinary projects
The orchestra’s multidisciplinary projects have included an original show for a dancing orchestra based on Jean-Baptiste Lully’s opera Le Bourgeois gentilhomme, with a choreography by the Spanish choreographer and dancer Juan Kruz Diaz de Garaio Esnaola. The orchestra has presented several projects with the DJ Francesco Tristano, mixing music by Johann Sebastian Bach and techno music. For the Antigel Festival, the orchestra created a video art project, bringing together the music of the American composer John Adams with a video art creation by Jeff Gaudinet and Hendrik van Boetzelaer. The orchestra has also worked with the circus company “Les Objets Volants”, with the Romanian puppeteer Liviu Berehoi, the Swiss actress and puppeteer Laure-Isabelle Blanchet, and with the French magician and shadow theatre artist Philippe Beau, creating mini-operas and original shows for children and adolescents.
World premieres
The Geneva Camerata regularly commissions young composers and gives world premiers of their works. Since 2013, the orchestra has given world premieres of new symphonic works by Martin Jaggi, Núria Giménez-Comas, Jannik Giger, Ofer Pelz, Jonathan Keren, Massimo Pinca, Cécile Marti, Marcos Balter, Nicolas von Ritter-Zahony, Francesco Tristano, Sergei Abir, and Michael Pelzel.
Discography
The orchestra’s first album, released by Sony Classical, will present an encounter between the worlds of baroque, classical, jazz, and improvisation, with jazz pianist Yaron Herman and jazz drummer Ziv Ravitz. The programme of this album, which received its live world premiere at the Berlin Philharmonie on 8 September 2016, also features Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, played and conducted by David Greilsammer.
