Stefan Dohr,

»I never imagined I’d some day be playing with the Berliner Philharmoniker. I only auditioned because I didn’t want to pass up this unique opportunity and later regret not having at least given it a try. This orchestra means a great deal to me: not only collaborating with the conductor in the preparation and performance of a piece but also the special role of the principal horn. He is, on the one hand, a sort of intermediary between the instrumental sections, on the other hand, for example in Mahler and Bruckner symphonies, a great soloist.«

Stefan Dohr is blessed with both a “thundering tone that resounds valley-wide” (Berliner Zeitung) and a breathtakingly “delicate piano that sounds as if from afar” (Badische Zeitung). As an acclaimed soloist, chamber musician and principal horn of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he is a mainstay of the international horn scene. In the orchestra, he has a special task: on the one hand, the horn player is a “quasi mediator between the instrumental groups, on the other hand, a soloist in Mahler and Bruckner symphonies, for example”.

In addition to the Classical and Romantic repertoire, Stefan Dohr loves contemporary music, as evidenced by his participation in the world premieres of Toshio Hosokawa’s Moment of Blossoming and Hans Abrahamsen’s Horn Concerto together with the Berliner Philharmoniker. His virtuosity and thirst for discovery have also inspired other composers to write new works for him, and explore the possibilities of the horn in new ways. Born in Münster, he studied in Essen and Cologne and was principal horn with the Frankfurter Opern- and Museumsorchester, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin before joining the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1993. He teaches not only at the Karajan Academy, but also at the Sibelius Academy Helsinki, the Hanns Eisler School of Music Berlin and the Royal College of Music in London.