Stefan Dohr

The horn player Stefan Dohr, who was born in 1965, comes from Münster in Westphalia. He completed his instrumental training in Essen and Cologne and was only 19 when he was engaged as principal horn by the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra.  In 1993, following positions with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, he was appointed principal horn of the Berlin Philharmonic, where he has remained. As a soloist Dohr has worked with such conductors as Daniel Barenboim and Simon Rattle; he also concertized regularly with the late Claudio Abbado. His repertoire encompasses all eras of horn music, including contemporary works. Leading composers of the present have written new pieces for him: examples include Herbert Willi’s horn concerto Äon (2008), Jorge E. López’s Symphonie fleuve for Horn and Orchestra (2009), Johannes Wallmann’s spatial-music concerto SOLO-UNIVERS (2010), and the concerto Moment of Blossoming (2011) by Toshio Hosokawa. Dohr also has a strong interest in lesser-known works and unusual pairings; for example, he combines Mozart’s four horn concertos on CD with various arrangements of a concerto fragment by Mozart. A passionate chamber musician, Dohr partners with the pianists Maurizio Pollini and Lars Vogt, the violinist Kolja Blacher, and the tenors Ian Bostridge and Mark Padmore. He is additionally a member of the Ensemble Wien-Berlin and of the Berlin Philharmonic Horns. Stefan Dohr teaches at the Hanns Eisler Music Conservatory in Berlin as well as at the Orchestra Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic and gives master classes around the world.

As a member of the Berlin Philharmonic, Stefan Dohr has performed at LUCERNE FESTIVAL every summer for 20 years.

August 2014