Stefan Dohr

Horn player Stefan Dohr is a peerless exponent of his instrument. As a celebrated soloist, chamber musician and principal horn of the Berliner Philharmoniker, he is an icon on the international horn scene.

In recent seasons, Stefan Dohr has performed with orchestras such as the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and the Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra. He has played under conductors including Sir Simon Rattle, Claudio Abbado, Daniel Barenboim, Bernard Haitink, Christian Thielemann, Daniel Harding, Gustavo Gimeno, Dima Slobodeniouk, Paavo and Neeme Järvi, John Storgårds and Marc Albrecht.

Dohr’s virtuosity and thirst for discovery have inspired many leading composers to dedicate new works to him and to explore the capabilities of his instrument in new ways. The horn concertos composed for him represent a significant expansion of the horn repertoire. Most recent is the concerto by Jörg Widmann, jointly commissioned by the Berliner Philharmoniker, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Brussels Philharmonic and the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, and premiered in Berlin in May 2024.

Stefan Dohr studied in Essen and Cologne and was principal horn of the Frankfurt Opera and Museum Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin before being appointed principal horn of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1993.