About the Project

Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester

Das Neue Mannheimer Orchester (DNMO) was established in late 2016 in The Hague by Canadian harpsichordist and fortepianist Anders Muskens with the aim of recapturing the spirit of music from the period of the original Mannheim Court Orchestra, including late Baroque, galant, Classical, and early Romantic – especially from composers of the Mannheim School. From 2022, the Karl Theodor Kunstverein e.V. supports its activiites. As an early music ensemble, DNMO plays on period instruments using historically informed techniques. It is made up of young professional early music specialists, and is a highly international group featuring talents from the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Austria, France, Italy, Poland, Spain, Japan, Korea, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil, Australia, Canada, and the United States. 

In November 2018, the ensemble was awarded the „Hofkapelle Elbe-Elster“ für das Jahr 2019 prize at the „Gebrüder Graun Prize“ 2018 in Bad Liebenwerda, Germany. DNMO has played at the Utrecht Early Music Festival Fringe in 2018–19; and the Wahrenbrücker Graun-Festtage 2019. DNMO produced a revival of Gian Francesco de Majo’s opera serenata, La gara delle grazie at the Grachtenfestival in Amsterdam in August 2020. DNMO was invited to play on Dutch national television’s Podium Witteman (NL) in April 2021 in a segment on the music of the Mannheim Court, and in the summer of 2021 produced a series of concerts supported by the Fonds Podiumkunsten Balkonscènes Fond (NL). In April 2022, DNMO performed at the Schwetzinger SWR Festspiele. With the support of Sean, the Canada Council for the Arts, the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the Adriana Jacoba Fonds, DNMO has produced a numerous recordings.

DNMO is committed to challenge established boundaries and conventions of the Classical Music world with the goal of rekindling the passion of eighteenth-century performances. With the collaboration of various musicologists, DNMO has a number of research initiatives to better understand and reconstruct eighteenth century orchestral performance practices.  In addition to presenting music from well-known masters, DNMO seeks to present music of lesser-known composers which is equally worthy of performance.