Photo Credits: Kai Bornhoefft Andrea Molino | Lyndon Terracini | Fabrica's Musicians | TaikOz | The Queensland Orchestra | Bill Bowers | Jethro Louw | Matthias Neutzner | Fabrica's Contributors | Dresdner Sinfoniker Dresdner Sinfoniker 1996. The first European symphony orchestra dedicated entirely to contemporary music is born. Originally, the two founders - Markus Rindt and Sven Helbig - had only wanted to start up a band. However, theirsearch for interesting and new forms of expression resulted in amulticoloured mixture of jazz, today’s orchestral music, exotic musicfrom around the world, hip-hop, percussion music, and moreover inhaving to ask the question just which ’band’ could encompass all theseareas of music. Over the following months this vision became a reality, with anintegral part to play in the German orchestral scene. Here is a groupof players from diverse musical backgrounds with the capacity to formdifferently sized ensembles, where no boundaries exist and nothingcontemporary is excluded. Several times a year, outstanding musicians -many of them members of renowned European orchestras such as theTonhalle Orchestra Zürich, the Berlin Philharmonic, the SächsischeStaatskapelle Dresden and the Dresden Philharmonic - meet to rehearsetheir concert programmes. The Dresdner Sinfoniker has consistently been met with enthusiasm whether performing unusual symphonic works, the music of other cultures ornumerous cross-over projects. Many works by young composers have had their world premières as well asothers being performed in Europe or Germany for the first time. As aresult some composers have gone on to be included in the repertoire ofother European orchestras. Even concerts with daring programmes - such as giving three worldpremières of works by unknown composers - have been unusually wellattended and most were a sell-out. The audience trusts the name ’Dresdner Sinfoniker’ just as it would afamiliar author, a director, or come to mention it, a favourite band.Thus the members of the orchestra have remained loyal to the idea oftheir founders - they are members of one big ’band’. They are loyal tothe philosophy that underlies the creation of the orchestra and joinsin a common bond the musicians, management and audience. You cannottalk about just another orchestra. Here is an orchestra with a distinctand unique profile.