In 2009 Christoph Eß, Sebastian Schorr, Stephan Schottstädt und Timo Steininger founded the horn quartet German Horn Sound which, thanks to its unusual profile, has achieved international recognition. Over the last few years this wind ensemble has debuted in almost all of the German speaking music festivals and in the last two seasons has performed with such orchestras as the Tokyo Symphony orchestra and given concerts in Hong Kong and Taiwan. Their repertoire ranges through virtually all genres and styles.

German Horn Sound sets itself apart through its various projects, such as the opera fragment ›Siegfried und Violetta‹, developed in 2013 and dedicated to Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi. They also produced a CD in 2013 together with Michael Sanderling and the Bamberg Symphony which included a work they commissioned from the Norwegian composer Trygve Madsen. German Horn Sound has been performing its Programme ›Pictures‹ – a work for eight horns and percussion based on works by Russian composers and thematically linked to Mussorgsky’s ›Pictures at an Exhibition‹. These four musicians have also been working together with the prize winning vocal ensemble Amarcord on a programme of Romantic music. In addition to their chamber music activities, the four members of German Horn Sound are all active as orchestral musicians, namely the Württemberg Philharmonie Reutlingen, Hanover Opera, Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra.

Estonian conductor and Grammy Award winner Paavo Järvi has been Artistic Director of The Deutsche Kammer­philharmonie Bremen, his only German orchestra, since 2004. One highlight of the collaboration were the celebrated concerts of the Beethoven cycle, which received critical acclaim worldwide. Järvi received numerous awards for the recordings, including the ›Echo Klassik‹ as ›Conductor of the Year‹ and the prestigious ›Annual Prize of the German Record Critics‹.

Following the Beethoven project, he and the orchestra tackled the symphonic works of Schumann and Brahms, which received similarly enthusiastic reviews. Paavo Järvi is also Principal Conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra, Artistic Advisor to the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra and the Järvi Summer Festival in Pärnu, Estonia, and since 2019/20 Artistic Director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. He regularly makes appearances as guest conductor with orchestras such as the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras, the Staatskappelle Dresden and the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago and the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. In 2015, he was named ›Artist of the Year‹ by the renowned British magazine Gramophone and the French magazine Diapason. In 2019, he received the ›Opus Klassik‹ as ›Conductor of the Year‹.