SWR guest at Zeppelin University’s Leadership Excellence Institute Zeppelin

On 27 March 2020, the Deputy Manager of the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart, Sabrina Haane, spoke as a guest lecturer at the LEIZ. She contributed to the jointly held online courses “Management & Leadership in Arts, Culture & the Creative Industries” and “Basics in Management & Leadership”.
In the current mode of online teaching, the course leaders and LEIZ lecturers, Dr Julika Montecinos and Dr Angelica V. Marte, invited participants to a virtual Big Blue Button lecture theatre. Sabrina Haane, who has a degree in Musicology as well as in Business Administration, passed on a great deal of practical experience to the course participants. Having worked in this field for 17 years and with the SWR since 2016, she was not only able to give very precise insights into her own position at the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart, but also into the various sensitivities of the different stakeholders of such an orchestra, and into the specifics of leadership in a cultural context.
Similar to music courses, the students in this course could listen to audio examples, with a different intention, however. The examples served to improve the students’ understanding of different approaches and specific management styles when working on a given task or mutual goal of the orchestra. They also got an excellent overview of the structures, the organisation and the everyday work of a Radio Symphony Orchestra. Using the example of the new Greece-born but Russia-based Chief Conductor of the SWR Orchestra, Teodor Currentzis, Mrs Haane was able to take the participants on a journey through the world of professional music. With Currentzis' charismatic personality as an example, she succeeded excellently in illustrating the special working atmosphere of a professional orchestra and the associated challenges for its operational management.
Sabrina Haane also talked about the merger of the Stuttgart and Freiburg Radio Symphony Orchestras, which was followed by some change management measures, and entailed several challenges. This was a very good opportunity to learn about the impact of emotion in such a classical music organisation and how best to deal with it when in a leadership position.
After the break, questions were asked online in an open chat format and Mrs Haane answered them by referring to her own career, to her leadership as well as to gender specific leadership questions in a cultural context. The two courses closed finally with a very lively and inspiring conversation between students, course leaders and guest lecturer.

https://www.swr.de/swrclassic/symphonieorchester/aexavarticle-swr-83346.html

LEIZ Communication Management
Contact: evelyn.pachta@zu.de

With the beginning of the season 2018/19 Teodor Currentzis takes the reigns as the first Principal Conductor of the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart (SWR SO). With the appointment of Currentzis, one of the most internationally popular conductors is now at the helm. The SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart is the result of the merger between the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg in September 2016.

Although the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart is still relatively new, it has already made its mark. Distinguished lines of musical traditions continued by its two predecessors blend with each other.

Since their foundation in 1945/46, high-profiled principle conductors have successfully shaped the SWR orchestras, for example Hans Rosbaud, Ernest Bour, Michael Gielen, Sylvain Cambreling and François-Xavier Roth; in Stuttgart Hans Müller-Kray, Sergiu Celibidache, Sir Neville Marriner and Sir Roger Norrington. The profile of the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart comprises New Music, the symphonic orchestral literature of bygone eras as well as interpretative approaches of the historically informed performance practice. Making demanding music attractive to all ages is also an important objective.

World-class conductors such as Christoph Eschenbach, Herbert Blomstedt, David Zinman, Peter Eötvös, Sir Roger Norrington, Michael Sanderling and Jakub Hrůša are guests of the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart. Among the top-class soloists, some of them "Artists in Residence” of the first three seasons, are Gil Shaham and Antoine Tamestit as well as other touring soloists such as Hilary Hahn, Fazil Say, Julia Fischer, Mischa Maisky, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Renaud Capuçon and Janine Jansen. Apart from many performances in SWR’s own series of concerts the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart appears at the Donaueschingen Festival for New Music and the Schwetzingen Festival. It has also performed at concerts in Vienna, London, Salzburg, Madrid, Munich, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Dortmund, Warsaw, Essen, Basle, Frankfurt and Tallinn, and has been a regular fixture at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Festival Acht Brücken in Cologne and the Musikfest Berlin as well as to a tour to China.

Source: SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart