Founded in 1946, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra (Wiener Kammerorchester) was conducted in its early decades by Franz Litschauer, Heinrich Hollreiser, Paul Angerer, and Carlo Zecchi. Philippe Entremont was its chief conductor between 1976 and 1991, and as lifetime honorary conductor, Entremont continues to lead the orchestra on tours and in its subscription concerts at the Vienna Konzerthaus. His appearances as both conductor and soloist have started a tradition, as the orchestra has frequently invited such artists as Yehudi Menuhin, Heinz Holliger, and Heinrich Schiff to collaborate in a dual role. The tradition was maintained by Ernst Kovacic, who succeeded Entremont as chief conductor from 1996 to 1998. Many other artists have also left their mark in concerts with the orchestra, first and foremost among them Sándor Végh, with whom it had a long and fruitful collaboration up to his death, in 1997. It has also worked with conductors Adam Fischer, Sir Neville Marriner, and Peter Schreier; singers Cecilia Bartoli, Teresa Berganza, Thomas Quasthoff, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Edita Gruberova, and Kiri Te Kanawa; and instrumental soloists Rudolf Buchbinder, Oleg Maisenberg, Vadim Repin, Thomas Zehetmair, Lynn Harrell, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Richard Stoltzman, Emmanuel Pahud, Gianluca Cascioli, and Friedrich, Paul, and Rico Gulda. The orchestra performs as much in the rest of Austria and all over the world as it does in its home city. During the 1998–99 season, for example, it visited Spain, Portugal, and Germany as well as North and South America. In October 1999 it was invited to give nine concerts throughout the United States under the direction of Philippe Entremont, and it toured there again in February–March 2002. In 1999 Christoph Eberle assumed the position of chief conductor, and he took the orchestra on a tour of Japan in July 2000. The orchestra is frequently heard on Austrian radio and has made a large number of recordings.
