The Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE) was founded in 1981 by a group of young musicians who became acquainted as part of the European Community Youth Orchestra (now EUYO). There are now about 60 members of the COE, who pursue parallel careers as principals or section leaders of nationally-based orchestras, as eminent chamber musicians, and as tutors of music.

From the start, the COE’s identity was shaped by its partnerships with leading conductors and soloists. It was Claudio Abbado above all who served as an important mentor in the early years. He led the COE in staged works such as Rossini’s Il viaggio a Reims and Il barbiere di Siviglia and Mozart’s Le Nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni and conducted numerous concerts featuring works by Schubert and Brahms in particular. Nikolaus Harnoncourt also had a major influence on the development of the COE through his performances and recordings of all of the Beethoven symphonies, as well as through opera productions at the Salzburg, Vienna, and Styriarte festivals.

Currently the Orchestra works closely with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Simon Rattle and Sir András Schiff, who are Honorary Members (following in the footsteps of Bernard Haitink and Nikolaus Harnoncourt), and also Sir Antonio Pappano and Robin Ticciati.

The COE has strong links with many of the major festivals and concert halls in Europe including the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden, the Kammermusiksaal der Philharmonie in Berlin, the Cologne, Luxembourg and Paris Philharmonies, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. In partnership with the Kronberg Academy, the COE became the first-ever Orchestra-in-residence at the Casals Forum in Kronberg in 2022. The Chamber Orchestra of Europe has also been Orchestra-in-residence at the Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt since 2022.

With more than 250 works in its discography, the COE’s CDs have won numerous international prizes, including two Grammys and three Gramophone Record of the Year Awards. The COE’s most recent release is an archive recording of the Schubert Symphonies, performed at the Styriarte Festival in Graz in 1988 with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, released by ICA Classics. The 4-CD box-set has been enthusiastically received by the critics internationally and the Orchestra has now released a second box-set of archive recordings with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, featuring works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. In January 2022, the COE also released all of the Sibelius Symphonies on DVD and BluRay, conducted by Paavo Berglund at the Helsinki Festival in 1998. In February 2023, the recording of the Clara Wieck-Schumann and Robert Schumann’s Piano Concertos with Beatrice Rana and Yannick Nézet-Séguin was released to international acclaim. In July 2024, Deutsche Grammophon released our Brahms Symphonies, recorded at the Baden-Baden Festspielhaus with Yannick Nézet-Séguin during 2022 and 2023.

In 2009, the COE Academy was created in order to give a select group of exceptional students the chance to study with the principal players of COE and, importantly, to give the students the opportunity to travel “on tour” with the orchestra.

The COE is a private orchestra which receives invaluable financial support from particularly the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and a further number of Friends including Dasha Shenkman, Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement, the Rupert Hughes Will Trust, the Underwood Trust, the 35th Anniversary Friends and American Friends.

To find out more about the COE and its members, you can listen to our podcast presented by Simon Mundy.

Feature about the COE, ‘Continental drift’ by Simon Mundy, in Classical Music Magazine (April 2019)

Read more about our relationships with Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Bernard Haitink and Claudio Abbado.

For a year-by-year chronology of the COE odyssey, as told by our bass trombonist Nick Eastop, please visit our #COE40 page.

Please click here to download the COE’s full biography.

The History of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Please click on the chapters below to discover the unique story of the creation of the COE and to find out how the Orchestra has evolved since 1981.

Harmony on a honeymoon – or listen to the story of the COE’s genesis on our podcast here.

The 1980’s and 1990’s

The COE in the new millennium

For a year-by-year chronology of the COE odyssey, as told by our bass trombonist Nick Eastop, please visit our #COE40 page.

COE Timeline

Please enlarge to full screen and turn the sound on for an optimal experience. To do this, please click on the three dots at the bottom right of the screen and then on the arrows pointing outwards.

If you are on a mobile, please turn your device to view in landscape mode.

If you would like to open the content of the red ‘plus’ signs without losing the full-screen timeline, please right-click on the ‘plus’ sign and select ‘open in a new window’.