Reinhard Goebel

Reinhard Goebel, previously well-known as the founder of the world famous Early Music ensem-ble Musica Antiqua Köln, has also established himself as a highly regarded conductor of "modern" orchestras. He was born in 1952 and received his first violin lessons at the age of twelve. At a very early stage, he already had developed his exclusive interest in Early Music. His teachers as a violinist were Franzjosef Maier, Eduard Melkus, Marie Leonhardt, and Saschko Gawriloff, a world-renowned expert on difficult modern scores.

In 1973, Reinhard Goebel founded Musica Antiqua Köln, and signed an exclusive contract with Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft - Archiv Produktion in 1978. In this context, he was able to consolidate his status as one of Europe’s most important exponents of the Early Music scene, especially as an authority in music of the German Baroque repertoire. His recordings with Musica Antiqua Köln set high artistic standards and received all the world's most prestigious record awards, amongst them several Gramophone Awards, further the Siemens-Förderpreis, the Tele-mann-Preis of the city of Magdeburg, and the Förderpreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen. In 1997 Reinhard Goebel received the Staatspreis des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen from the former Prime Minister, Johannes Rau. In April 2007, Reinhard Goebel was honored by the IAMA Award in London and in February 2008 he received the „Diapason d’Or“ for his CD „Mozart in Paris” and in spring 2010 again for his re-edited CD “Le Parnasse Francais” with Musica Antiqua Köln.

Reinhard Goebel through the years always remained an influential outsider in the Early Music scene. This was due to his permanent quest for aesthetically enriching territory, controversial readings of standard repertoire and programs that never conformed to fashion.

Nowadays Reinhard Goebel performs as a guest conductor of "modern" orchestras, for example the Beethoven Orchester Bonn, the Duisburger Philharmoniker, the Gewandhaus Leipzig, the München and Zürich Chamber Orchestras, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Deutsche Sympho-nieorchester Berlin, the orchestra of the Komische Oper Berlin, the Hamburger Symphoniker, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera Kopenhagen, the Orchestra di Padova e del Veneto, the Orchestre National d’Île de France Paris and the major German Radio Orchestras including WDR Köln, BR München, HR Frankfurt, SR Saarbrücken and NDR Hannover etc.

Reinhard Goebel has directed opera in Hannover (all Monteverdi operas), Freiburg and Copen-hagen (both Handel) as well as in Mannheim (Piccinni's "Catone in Utica" and Johann Christian Bach’s “Amadis de Gaule”), Kiel (Purcell’s “Dido and Aeneas”) and in Rheinsberg (Dittersdorf’s “Doktor und Apotheker”) and regards it a special challenge to promote 17th and 18th century rep-ertoire. He is particularly keen to restore Bach and contemporaries on the concert platforms of the big orchestras from which they have disappeared due to the competence of specialised period instrument ensembles.

In summer 2008 Reinhard Goebel appeared at the festival stages in Brühl and Herrenchiemsee and with the Helsinki Baroque Orchestra in Turku and Vantaa in Finland. In January 2009 he was appointed first Guest Conductor of the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie. In May 2009 he made his debut with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden with great success. In October 2009 he made his remarkable debuts as conductor in Taiwan with the Taipei Symphony Orchestra and in Australia with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra which invited him back immediately for two projects with three concerts each. Summer 2010 saw Reinhard Goebel at the helm of the Grand Teton Festival Orchestra in Wyoming with a program of Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons which marked his successful debut as conductor in the US. In January 2011 he made his debut in Denmark with the Sønderjyllands Symfoniorkester, a re-engagement is already planned. In April 2011 the debut with the Odense Symfoniorkester and two performances of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion with the Residentie Orkest and the Nederlands Kamerkoor in Den Haag followed. In Au-gust and September 2011 he conducted four concerts with the Bayerische Kammerphilharmonie in the castles of Brühl and Neuschwanstein. In December 2011 Reinhard returned to Melbourne with three concerts of Handel's "Messiah" at the Elisabeth Murdoch Hall of Melbourne Recital Centre. The third project with the Melbourne Symphony followed in August 2012 with three con-certs in Melbourne and Monash with an entire Mozart programme.

Concerts with the HR Symphony Orchestra in Frankfurt and Fulda in January 2012, with the MDR Symphony in Magdeburg and Leipzig in March 2012, the debut with the Wiener Kammerorchester at Konzerthaus Wien and a concert with the Budapest Festival Orchestra in April followed. In July 2012 he opened the “Mannheimer Mozartsommer” and conducted a new production of Johann Christian Bach’s “Temistoclé” at Nationaltheater Mannheim. In January 2013 he conducted the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki (Finland) and presented the complete “Brandenburgische Konzerte” by Johann Sebastian Bach within two concerts in the new Helsinki Music Centre.

As before with Musica Antiqua Köln, Reinhard Goebel collaborates as a conductor with some world famous soloists, as for example Christine Schäfer, Anne Sofie von Otter, Leonidas Ka-vakos, Viktoria Mullova, Kim Kashkashian, Jan Vogler, Martin Stadtfeld and the Labèque sisters.

Since autumn 2010 Reinhard Goebel teaches as professor historically informed performance at the Mozarteum Salzburg.