The Freiburg Academic Orchestra celebrated the 50^th anniversary of its founding this year on 5 and 6 July. The festivities testified to the great sense of community among current and former members of the ensemble as well as to the great diversity of its repertoire. The anniversary celebration took place during the 2014 Alumni Meeting.

The Freiburg Academic Orchestra has been performing at international concert halls to great acclaim for the past 50 years. Astoundingly, the ensemble has managed to maintain consistently high standards for decades despite having to deal with the great fluctuation of musicians inherent to a student orchestra.

The university orchestra invited all of its former conductors and musicians to a special event. Alumni and currently active musicians looked back on the past 50 years and played together once again.

On Sunday, 5 July, active and former members of the orchestra rehearsed several pieces together with former conductors. The orchestra then played these pieces the same evening at a public concert in the university’s assembly hall. All alumni were invited. After the concert, the guests rose their glasses in a toast to the successful history of the orchestra at a festive dinner.

The Academic Orchestra celebrated its golden anniversary on Sunday, 6 July, with a big anniversary concert at the Freiburg Concert House. The program included pieces by Alexander Borodin, Piotr Tschaikowsky, George Gershwin, and Leonard Bernstein. The concert underscored the great versatility of the ensemble with regard to instrumentation and repertoire.