In the last 25 years, the Dresdner Sinfoniker changed the musical landscape and gained an international reputation as an orchestra with a visionary voice. Dedicated to contemporary music, most of their projects are strikingly different. They are visually stunning, formally daring and often politically relevant. Musicians from leading European orchestras join forces for concerts, music theatre and multimedia performances, repeatedly using unique pioneering technology. The orchestra’s extraordinary and committed productions are recognised internationally and have received numerous awards like the UNESCO World Horizon Prize and the ECHO Klassik award.

Collaborations with ethnic musicians and ensembles are an integral part of the orchestra’s artistic approach, such as in Hasretim of 2010, which involved Anatolia’s traditional music or I EXIST – to Rajasthan, connecting the Dresdner Sinfoniker with Romni and Indian musicians. The orchestra frequently addresses global topics. In 2017, they staged a festival against isolation and intolerance close to the US-Mexican border wall near Tijuana and performed together with Mexican and US musicians.

In 2020, alphorns, tubas and trumpets were positioned on several high-rise buildings in Dresden, transforming the residential neighbourhood into an open-air concert hall. Connecting people with technology plays an essential role for the Dresdner Sinfoniker. At The World’s First Remote Conducting in 2008, a satellite broadcast projection enabled the conductor in London to lead the orchestra in Dresden. In 2025, the international collaboration Europasinfonie will bring together musicians from twelve European countries using fast transmission technology to showcase Europe’s unity and cultural diversity.

The Dresdner Sinfoniker are co-financed by the State Capital Dresden – Amt für Kultur und Denkmalschutz (“Office for Culture and Monument Protection”) and by tax revenues on the basis of the budget approved by the members of the Parliament of the State of Saxony. They are a member of FREO – Freie Ensembles und Orchester in Deutschland e.V. (Free ensembles and orchestras in Germany)