Since 1999 Tobias Lea is a member of the Vienna Chamber Ensemble, which was founded in 1970 by prominent members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, originally under the name of “The Vienna Philharmonic Chamber Ensemble”.
The Ensemble embraces instrumental formations from trio to nonett, the repertoire ranges from classical to modern music. Apart from the best-known works for septet and octet formations, the Vienna Chamber Ensemble specializes in chamber music for winds and strings, including the entire collection of Divertimenti with two horns, by W.A. Mozart.
Most of the members of the Vienna Chamber Ensemble are from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. The ensemble’s reputaton as a leading formation of its kind, was earned through successful performances in all the great musical centres of the world, including performances in countless musical festivals in Vienna, Salzburg and Ravenna, to name but a few.
The Ensemble enjoys “cult status” in Japan, acquired over the years through countless tours and performances made there since its formation in 1970.
LP and CD recordings, countless radio and television broadcasts, as well as tours in Europe and overseas help to establish and reinforce the best tradition of Viennese chamber music making.
In the past years the Vienna Chamber Ensemble has undergone a major change of members, and has engaged principal players from the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to fill its ranks. This generation change has now been completed, and the Ensemble is fortunate enough to have won the membership of the new female concertmaster of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, as its first violinist.
Also new works have been introduced to extend the repertoire, such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold’s String Quartet no. 1, which was performed in the Salzburg Festival in 2005 with much critical acclaim. Modern works by contemporary Austrian composers are performed, such as the Octet by Kurt Schwertsik.
The Ensemble also interprets typical Viennese orchestral repertoire, such as works from the J. Strauß dynasty.
A particular emphasis in the touring activity of the Ensemble in the past few years, has been countless performances in the most important Italian musical centres, including among others, Rome, Milan, Florence, Pisa, Udine, Cagliari, Naples and Palermo.