Sounding sketches - Freiburg wind orchestra, spring concert

On June 20, 2026 at 7.30 pm, the Freiburg Wind Orchestra (FBO) will be giving a concert at the Bürgerhaus Zähringen. The program, put together by FBO conductor Miguel Etchegoncelay, current president of the International Association for Orchestras and Ensembles (WASBE), is entitled Sounding Sketches. In his Paris Sketches, Martin Ellerby sketches various characteristic Parisian districts and uses motifs and styles by artists who are associated with Paris because they lived there or are connected to the city in other ways, including Ravel, Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Satie and Berlioz. Bells repeatedly play a role, which, according to Ellerby, also sound as police sirens and car horns. The second work, Gil Blas, consists of a theme with five variations in which Jules Strens sets the novel by Alain-René Lesange to music. The composer outlines the social rise of the go-getter Gil Blas from a poor background and caricatures the social classes of 17th century Spain with which the hero of the novel comes into contact. The third work is a colorful and nuanced composition by Alfred Reed. In his Fourth Symphony, Reed initially uses two motifs to present all the timbres of a wind orchestra. Like a painter, he prepares a color palette before using it to create an elegant intermezzo and a fiery tarantella full of contrasts and imagination.

Tickets are available in advance for EUR 15 (EUR 12 concessions) from all musicians in the orchestra and online at https://pretix.eu/fbo/; at the box office for EUR 17 (EUR 14 concessions). The concert hall in the Bürgerhaus opens at 6.30 pm.

The Freiburg Wind Orchestra

The approximately 60 musicians of the Freiburg Wind Orchestra (FBO) are dedicated to playing symphonic wind music at a high artistic level. The weekly rehearsals with conductor Miguel Etchegoncelay in Freiburg-Haslach prepare them for classical and modern original literature, transcriptions and sophisticated light music. The FBO gives concerts in and around Freiburg and regularly performs major concert projects at the Konzerthaus (concert hall) in Freiburg - most recently in February 2026 with Carmina Burana. The orchestra takes part in competitions: in 2025, the Freiburg musicians under the direction of Miguel Etchegoncelay took 2nd place in the concert competition at the German Music Festival as the best German orchestra at the highest level. The Freiburg Wind Orchestra is part of the Freiburger Blasorchester e. V. association, which offers a wide range of intensive youth work, lessons for all ages and several ensembles of different levels for interested people in the Haslach, Weingarten and Rieselfeld districts.

Further information can be found at www.freiburger-blasorchester.de