Established in East Berlin in the early 1980’s, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin has become one of the world’s leading chamber orchestras specializing in baroque music. The ensemble is a regular guest in the concert halls of Vienna, Paris, Amsterdam, Zurich and Brussels, and its extensive tour schedule has taken the Akademie to most of Europe as well as the Mideast, Japan, Southeast Asia, North and South America. In Berlin the orchestra has a concert series at the Konzerthaus am Gendamenmarkt, the musical home of the Akademie since the reopening of the concert hall in 1984. It has also been a regular guest at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin since 1994 and also appears regularly at the Innsbrucker Festwochen.
Since its London Wigmore Hall debut in 1999 the Akademie has worked as a regular partner with Cecilia Bartoli, and has also given concerts with numerous musical personalities, including René Jacobs, Marcus Creed, Daniel Reuss, the countertenor Andreas Scholl, the RIAS Kammerchor, the Vocalconsort Berlin, and the Choreograph Sasha Waltz, among others.
One of its most recent successes has been its work together with the dance ensemble Sasha Waltz & Guests for a co-production of Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas. Aside from regular performances at the Berlin Staatsoper, the production has been performed in Luxembourg and Montpellier and will be taken to Amsterdam, London and Brussels.
Since 1994, the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin has had an exclusive recording contract with harmonia mundi france, with over a million recordings sold. Prizes for these recordings include the Grammy, the Diapasion d’Or, the Cannes Clasical Award, the Grammophone Award, and the Edison Award.
In March 2006 the Akademie was awarded the Telemann-Prize from the City of Magdeburg.