Recording in progress! Frank Strobel is in his element when it comes to playing, producing and broadcasting live. Highly concentrated and precise, he puts his sound ideas into practice and will be chief conductor of the WDR Funkhausorchester from autumn 2021.

The cooperation of Frank Strobel (54) with the WDR Funkhausorchester has been successfully proven since 2011, and both sides look forward to the future with anticipation: Head of Department Dr. Christoph Stahl: "I am very pleased that we will be able to intensify the wonderful cooperation with this versatile and highly exciting artist in the coming years.

"We have realised countless projects with each other - and in such different ways as only very few orchestras can do", says Frank Strobel. "The WDR Funkhausorchester is the ideal partner for me. The orchestra is a "media orchestra" in the best sense of the word - it plays on the concert stage, the studio, the virtual media - all in the same high quality, with conviction and truthfulness. And this equally great openness and absolute dedication to the respective project - that's what I love so much about this orchestra".

Frank Strobel was born in Munich in 1966 and lives in Berlin and Lyon. His immense musical spectrum is reflected in his discography: in the field of entertainment he has developed numerous concert projects and tours with artists such as Udo Lindenberg, Dominique Horwitz, Max Mutzke, Max Raabe, Lyambiko as well as Rabih Abou-Kalil.

"Film in Concert" programmes have taken him to London's Royal Albert Hall (with the science fiction film MATRIX), La Scala in Milan, the Cologne Philharmonic Hall and the Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, among others. It is thanks to him that numerous silent film classics have been musically reconstructed and the artistically high-quality film scores have been recorded in the studio with, among others, the WDR Funkhausorchester and made available to a worldwide audience. A highlight was the world premiere of the reconstructed Metropolis film at the Berlinale 2010.

Frank Strobel works as a consultant for the silent film programme of ZDF/arte and has been artistic director of the cultural institution EUROPEAN FILM PHILHARMONY since 2000, which he co-founded and which has rendered outstanding services to a historically informed performance practice of film music.