Beethoven Festival Orchestra
Founded in 2011 to participate in the inaugural Beethoven Festival presented by IBP, the orchestra is of the highest international caliber, with a roster encompassing the very best orchestral and chamber musicians. At its core, the BFO is a chamber orchestra, but on occasion will perform with full orchestral capacity. The specialty of the BFO is to perform “Academy Concerts” in the style of the academy concerts produced by Beethoven and his contemporaries. An academy, in the 18th and early 19th centuries, was a public concert that usually consisted of several segments, with multiple intermissions, the whole lasting at least 4 hours. The repertoire performed could be anything from symphonies to concerti to arias and sometimes even solo instrumental performances mixed in. Today, there is a thirst for creative programming, and the BFO aims to find many new ways to present great music.
The BFO’s inaugural conductors are Josephine Lee, director of the Chicago Children’s Choir; Daniel Boico, Principal Assistant Conductor of the New York Philharmonic; and Robert McConnell, Music Director of IBP.