Programme

On Saturday, 9 August 2025, the Nürnberger Symphoniker will take to the stage in Luitpoldhain with a colourful program full of symphonic and concerted highlights under the title “Nürnberg grüßt die weite Welt”. 
Beginning with Wagner's “Meistersinger von Nürnberg”, the orchestra, under its Chief Conductor Jonathan Darlington, carries the name of its city out into the world like an ambassador. The varied program invites you on a city trip around the globe: whether Moscow or London, Paris or New York, for example with Leonard Bernstein's “Times Square Dance” from his musical “On the Town”.
The Italian star pianist Federico Colli, who recently triumphed with the Nürnberger Symphoniker in London, joins the musical excursion. He will perform the famous first movement from Pyotr Tchaikovsky's “Piano Concerto No. 1” and Richard Addinsell's “Warsaw Concerto”.

British conductor Jonathan Darlington has been the Chief Conductor of the Nürnberger Symphoniker since September 2022. Previously, he served nearly 20 years as Music Director of Vancouver Opera and General Music Director of the Duisburger Philharmoniker (2002–2011). Darlington is renowned for his perfectly structured concert programmes that take audiences on musical journeys. He has conducted prestigious ensembles such as the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Staatskapelle Dresden, and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, London. In early 2024, he conducted the world premiere of Detlev Glanert’s opera “Die Jüdin von Toledo” at the Dresden Semperoper, which was acclaimed by both audiences and critics. At the beginning of the 2024/25 season, Darlington and the Nürnberger Symphoniker embarked on their first joint tour of England with great success, delighting audiences in five British cities with a varied programme. Darlington is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London and a recipient of the Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres for his services to French culture.

Pianist Federico Colli studied at the Milan Conservatory, the International Piano Academy in Imola, and the Mozarteum University Salzburg. After winning the Salzburg Mozart Competition and the Leeds International Piano Competition, one of the most important competitions in the world, he embarked on a career that today takes him as a soloist and chamber musician to major concert halls around the world — from Vienna to London, Leipzig to Amsterdam, and New York to Tokyo. He has performed with renowned orchestras such as the St. Petersburg Philharmonic, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as the Orchestre national d’Île-de-France. He toured England in November 2024 with the Nürnberger Symphoniker led by Chief Conductor Jonathan Darlington, and will make his debut at the Luitpoldhain in 2025.

The Nürnberger Symphoniker have been inspiring audiences since 1946 with their artistic quality and stylistic range. Around 200,000 people attend their approximately 100 performances each season. At the symphonic concerts in the Meistersingerhalle, the focus is on classical-romantic repertoire, while in their own music hall they present cross-genre projects from pop, jazz, film, and literature. Advent concerts, the music summer in the Serenadenhof, and the Klassik Open Air offer a variety of musical experiences. A special concern of the orchestra is to engage young people with age-appropriate and interactive formats for classical music. The spearhead of this strategy is U-TURN | Das Orchestival, a format that combines digital video art, light installations, and interactive elements. In addition, projects with schoolchildren (Symphoniker im Klassenzimmer), concerts for people with dementia, and a chamber music tour of Nuremberg’s museums complement the orchestra’s commitment. A highlight of the 2024/25 season was the orchestra’s first tour of England under the direction of chief conductor Jonathan Darlington. The British press praised the Nürnberger Symphoniker as an orchestra that “punches above its weight.”

Tobias Föhrenbach works at Bayerischer Rundfunk. There, he hosts radio, television, and online programs and reports live from concerts, festivals, and other cultural events. He is also active as a media coach and vocal artist on theater stages and conducts seminars in the areas of voice and presentation.
Thanks to his experience as a presenter at BR-KLASSIK (Studio Franken) and his personal passion for classical music, Tobias Föhrenbach aims to accompany the concert with a balanced mix of emotion, entertainment, and quality.