Without notes - without conductor - without chairs: Stegreif shows new ways of what a contemporary orchestra can look like today. The international musicians combine symphonic music with improvisation and influences from other genres in radical recompositions and involve the audience in original spatial concepts. With these innovative concert formats, the young ensemble inspires a growing audience of different target groups.
Since the orchestra's founding in 2015, at least one new concert programme has been developed each year: #freebeethoven, #freeschubert, #freebrahms, #free∃roica, #bfree, #freemahler, #explore_mozart, #explorefreischütz, #bechange. In addition, co-productions were realised with the Neuköllner Oper (GIOVANNI. Eine Passion, MOON MUSIC), the PODIUM Esslingen (#bfree, #freebrahms), as well as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the junge norddeutsche Philharmonie (TRIKESTRA). Stegreif has played concerts on renowned stages such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus Berlin, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Alte Oper Frankfurt, the Brucknerhaus Linz, the Radialsystem Berlin, the Beethovenfest Bonn or the Prinzregententheater Munich as well as at alternative festivals such as FUSION, Detect Classic, PODIUM Esslingen, the Düsseldorf Festival or the Oranjewoud Festival (NL).
Improvisation is at the centre of all recompositions, but the integration of different musical styles from jazz to folk song and Arabic music to techno is also an important component. In addition to the ensemble's composers such as Juri de Marco, Alistair Duncan, Julia Bilat, Tabea Schenk, Nina Kazourian, Sebastian Casper and Bertram Burkert, Stegreif has commissioned works and arrangements from Uri Caine, Mike Conrad, Wolf Kerschek, Evelyn Saylor, Malte Schiller and Claas Krause. It has also worked with directors Ulrike Schwab, David Fernandez, Theresa von Halle and Ela Baumann as well as with musical guests such as Caroline Widmann, Nils Landgren, Markus Stockhausen and Rosanne Philippens.
In addition, structured music education concepts have been established. The orchestra regularly gives workshops and children's concerts, has developed joint concert programmes with amateurs or young people on several occasions, such as #Carmen with the Weimar Stadtstreichern or BE:community with the Konzerthaus Dortmund, and last but not least has created its own digital education series with PLURAL.
Stegreif has already been awarded the following prizes: Startup Music Prize Berlin 2016, "D-Bü" competition of students of German music colleges 2017 (topic: future of the concert format), Würth Prize 2018 of the Jeunesses Musicales Foundation, Fellowship in the #bebeethoven programme of the PODIUM Festival Esslingen 2018-2020, European Trend Brand of the Year 2019 at the 14th European Cultural Brand Award.
Stegreif has received funding from the Federal Cultural Foundation, the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, the Karl Schlecht Foundation, the Alfred Töpfer Foundation F.V.S, the AVENTIS Foundation, the con moto Foundation and the Ministère de la Culture Luxembourg.