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.
The COE has strong links with the Lucerne Festival and with many of the major concert halls in Europe including the Cologne Philharmonie, the Philharmonie Luxembourg, Paris Philharmonie, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. In partnership with the Kronberg Academy, the COE will become the first-ever orchestra-inresidence at the future Casals Forum in Kronberg from 2021.
HarrisonParrott work with the COE management on their international touring profile including several visits to Spain together with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Janine Jansen, and Semyon Bychkov and Lisa Batiashvili. They have also done several performances in Europe in collaboration with Pierre-Laurent Aimard directing from the keyboard as well as major residencies at the Mostly Mozart Festival, New York and Japan, where they were accompanied by pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii for a ten concert tour.
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.
