Danish Chamber Orchestra

The Danish Chamber Orchestra (Danish: Danmarks Underholdningsorkester) is a chamber orchestra in Denmark. It was the Danish National Chamber Orchestra^[a] from 1939 to 2014, when it was under the Danish Broadcasting Corporation (DR). Since 2015, it has been funded privately.

The roots of the orchestra date back to 1927, with the formation of an orchestra to perform light music at the Hotel Phoenix by Louis Preil. By 1933, Louis Preils Danseorkester (Louis Preil's Dance Orchestra) consisted of 22 musicians and attained great popularity in Denmark via radio transmissions. In 1939, DR then formally established the DR Underholdningsorkester (lit. "Danish Radio Entertainment Orchestra") as the national broadcaster's in-house orchestra. It focused on lighter, popular repertoire. Teddy Petersen took over direction of the ensemble in 1943.^[1]

The repertoire of the orchestra included classical repertoire such as Mozart, to modern musicals and more recently, collaborations with rock groups. During the tenure of chief conductor Ádám Fischer, which began in 1999, the orchestra made a number of commercial recordings of symphonies and operas by Mozart.^[2] As of 2014, the orchestra numbered 42 performers.

In September 2014, DR announced the disbanding of the orchestra, effective 1 January 2015, citing budget cutbacks.^[3] Protests at the decision resulted, including objections to the haste of the decision by the DR board of directors, and that the Minister of Culture, Marianne Jelved, had authorised the dismantling before the orchestra had the opportunity to present a savings plan to allow it to continue.^[4] The orchestra gave its final performance as a DR ensemble on 21 November 2014, with a performance of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.^[5]

Los músicos de la orquesta iniciaron entonces una campaña de financiación colectiva para mantenerla en funcionamiento. ^{[ 6 ]} A través de Kickstarter , esta campaña recaudó 1.000.000 DKK de particulares, y varias empresas danesas se comprometieron a aportar los 2.000.000 DKK restantes. Debido a las limitaciones de Kickstarter para las donaciones individuales (50.000 DKK), la orquesta tuvo que cancelar su cuenta de Kickstarter, devolver las donaciones recibidas y solicitar a los donantes que volvieran a realizar sus donaciones en efectivo antes del 28 de febrero de 2015.

Tras finalizar su afiliación con DR, la orquesta se rebautizó como Danmarks Underholdningsorkester ( literalmente , «Orquesta Danesa de Entretenimiento»), y su nombre oficial en inglés eliminó la palabra «national», convirtiéndose en «Danish Chamber Orchestra». ^{[ 7 ]} Ofreció su primer concierto como conjunto financiado con fondos privados el 1 de febrero de 2015 en la Real Academia Danesa de Música . ^{[ 8 ] [ 9 ]}

• Tom Service, « La Orquesta Nacional de Cámara Danesa lucha contra los recortes mediante financiación colectiva ». The Guardian (entrada de blog), 27 de enero de 2015.

• Página web oficial (en danés e inglés)