The Gürzenich Orchestra, firmly rooted in Cologne but open to the world, stands for groundbreaking interpretations, innovative programmes and diverse offerings beyond the concert hall. We are one of Germany's leading orchestras in both concert and opera - and have a tradition that has written music history like no other.

The orchestra was founded in 1827 by the Concert-Gesellschaft Köln, but its prehistory can be traced back to the medieval cultivation of music in Cologne. We have been the orchestra of the City of Cologne since 1888 and delight more than 100,000 visitors in about 50 concerts per season in the Cologne Philharmonic Hall. We also perform as the Cologne Opera Orchestra in around 160 performances each season.

Since the 2015/16 season, François-Xavier Roth has served as Gürzenich Kapellmeister and General Music Director of the City of Cologne. Honorary conductors are Günter Wand (1946-1974) and Dmitrij Kitajenko. The designated Gürzenich Kapellmeister and General Music Director of the City of Cologne from 2025/26 is Andrés Orozco-Estrada.

We look back with pride on our great past: outstanding works of the Romantic repertoire by Johannes Brahms, Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler were premiered with the Gürzenich Orchestra. Today, this heritage is an incentive for us and our conductors to build bridges to the music of the present day: here, too, we can point to an impressive list of important premieres.

Around 150 musicians of the highest international calibre put their heart and soul into making us what we are: an orchestra of the highest calibre and with unlimited expressive possibilities. But we also leave the classical concert hall full of joy and without fear of contact to creatively inspire people in the midst of society. This is also part of our self-image. With performances in senior citizens' homes and kindergartens, workshops, concerts for schoolchildren and offers such as the Family Card, we inspire the most diverse target groups for music. Initiatives such as the Cologne Civic Orchestra and the Cologne Civic Choir invite people to actively participate. Of course, we are also active in the digital space with our GO Plus livestreams as well as podcasts and videos. Multiple award-winning CDs make it possible for the world to experience our uniqueness as cultural ambassadors of the city of Cologne.

François-Xavier Roth is one of today’s most imaginative conductors and programmers, whether in his roles as General Music Director of the City of Cologne and founder of Les Siècles, or with leading orchestras such as the London Symphony Orchestra, of which he is Principal Guest Conductor. A born communicator, he is a charismatic and persuasive advocate for classical music of every description.
In Cologne, where he has directed both the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Opera since 2015, his programming is notable for its breadth and depth, including new commissions alongside Baroque and Romantic music. Roth upholds the orchestra’s pioneering heritage, which includes having given the world premieres of Mahler’s Third and Fifth Symphonies, the Brahms Double Concerto, Strauss’s Don Quixote and Till Eulenspiegel, and Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten. For Cologne Opera he has led new productions of Benvenuto Cellini, Le nozze di Figaro, Don Giovanni, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Salome, Béatrice et Bénédict and The Flying Dutchman.

His sense of musical exploration led him in 2003 to found Les Siècles, which performs contrasting programmes on modern and period instruments, often within the same concert. Together, they have toured Europe, China and Japan, appearing at the Berlin Musikfest, BBC Proms, Edinburgh and Enescu festivals. In 2019, Les Siècles became resident orchestra of Atelier Lyrique de Tourcoing, where Roth is also Artistic Director, and in 2022 they took up their new residency at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées.
Projects have included recreating the original sound of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande. Currently, Les Siècles are celebrating their 20th anniversary with a series of European tours.

Roth is a champion of new music and has premiered works by Georg-Friedrich Haas and Hèctor Parra, and collaborated with composers such as Pierre Boulez, Wolfgang Rihm, Jörg Widmann, Helmut Lachenmann and Philippe Manoury. He has a leading role in the LSO’s Panufnik Composers Scheme, mentoring young emerging composers.

Engagement with new audiences is an essential part of Roth’s work, whether speaking from the podium or working with young people and amateurs. With the Festival Berlioz and Les Siècles, he founded the Jeune Orchestre Européen Hector Berlioz, which has its own collection of period instruments and last year performed Les Troyens à Carthage in Berlioz’s birthplace. In Cologne he has initiated a community orchestra and his Ohrenauf! youth programme was recipient of a Junge Ohren Produktion Award. His television series Presto! attracted weekly audiences of over three million in France.

Roth’s prolific award-winning discography includes the complete tone poems of Richard Strauss, Stravinsky ballets, Ravel and Berlioz cycles, Bruckner, Mahler and Schumann symphonies, and albums commemorating Debussy’s centenary. He was awarded the German Record Critics’ Honorary Prize 2020, the youngest conductor ever to receive it. For his achievements as musician, conductor, music director and teacher, François-Xavier Roth was made a Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur.