When Berlin Philharmonic Principal Horn Stefan Dohr made his Festival debut in 2019, he brought the house down with his nuanced and highly virtuosic performance of Britten’s stunning Serenade for Tenor, Horn, and Strings alongside tenor Paul Appleby, conductor David Zinman, and an ensemble of Festival musicians. That performance not only marked Dohr’s Festival debut and the Festival’s first-ever presentation of Britten’s moody masterpiece, it also fulfilled Artistic Director Marc Neikrug’s desire to find a perfect Festival vehicle for Dohr, whom he called “perhaps the greatest French horn player of our time.”
Since that debut, Dohr—who’s also been hailed as “the king of his instrument” by The New Criterion—has returned to the Festival in 2021 and 2023. This summer, he returns again, appearing on three programs that feature trios by Brahms and Ligeti and a sextet by Dohnányi.
Dohr was born in Münster, Germany, and studied in Essen and Cologne. He became principal horn of the Frankfurt Opera at age 19 and went on to hold the same position with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice and Deutsche Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. Dohr began his current role with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1993, and he’s also a member of the Berlin Philharmonic Octet and the Ensemble Wien-Berlin.
Throughout his career, Dohr has performed with many of the world’s leading ensembles and chamber musicians. Highlights of his 2024–25 season include serving as artist-in-residence for the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra in Denmark and appearing with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, among many others. He began the season by making his solo debut at the BBC Proms, where he gave the UK premiere of Hans Abrahamsen’s Horn Concerto with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, led by Chief Conductor (and Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival musician) John Storgärds. Dohr has premiered works by many other leading composers, including Dai Bo, Toshio Hosokawa, Jorge E. López, Wolfgang Rihm, Johannes Wallmann, Jörg Widmann, and Herbert Willi.
In addition to his live performances, Dohr is acclaimed for his discography, which features music by Mozart, Richard Strauss, Franz Strauss, Toshio Hosokawa, and Ole Schmidt. He also serves as a guest professor at both the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin and a visiting professor at the Royal College of Music in London.
This summer, Dohr marks his first 2025 Festival appearance by bringing the 6 p.m. concert on Wednesday, August 6, to a close with a performance of Dohnányi’s stunningly inventive Sextet, which also features clarinetist David Shifrin, violinist Jennifer Frautschi, violist Toby Appel, cellist Eric Kim, and pianist Soyeon Kate Lee.
Next, to kick off Week 5 of the Festival, Dohr gives highly anticipated performances on Sunday, August 10, and Monday, August 11, that feature, respectively, Ligeti’s demanding Hommage à Brahms Horn Trio—which the composer declared “cannot be pigeonholed into any neat stylistic category [due to its] odd angles and trick floors”—and the work that inspired it: Brahms’s beautiful 1865 Horn Trio. Pianist Kirill Gerstein and violinist William Hagen join Dohr for both performances.
Tickets for the Festival’s 2025 season are on sale now. Explore our 2025 calendar here, and purchase your tickets either online or through our Box Office at 505-982-1890.