In September 1993, after forty-three years of making do in the cramped Dominikanerbau, the Orchestra finally moved into a new home, the Konzert- und Kongresshalle (‘Concert and Congress Hall’) that has a picturesque position in a quiet corner of the city, right on the river, just opposite the 18 th Century former hospital (now a hotel) which can be reached via a graceful footbridge.

On the historic day of the move, the orchestra said goodbye to the Dominikanerbau and set off for the new hall – by raft, along the river! For the very first performance at the new concert hall Horst Stein had chosen a work that simply couldn’t have been put on in Bamberg before, Mahler’s ‘Symphony of a Thousand’, his Eighth.