The Dresden Soul Symphony

The Dresden Soul Symphony is a German concert show. The musicians reinterpret soul hits and combine them with classical music. The musical ensemble contains the singers Joy Denalane, Bilal, Tweet and Dwele; the radio orchestra of the Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk; four backing vocalists; the MDR children's choir and four instrumentalists, who do not belong to the orchestra. The performance venue of the show is Dresden, Germany. The premiere was on April 26, 2008.

The idea of The Dresden Soul Symphony had Reinhard Bärenz, the music chief of the German radio station MDR Sputnik. Bärenz had some experience with classical music, because he played professionally violin in a symphony orchestra in the 1980s. Someday Bärenz decided to found a crossover project that combines classical music with another music genre. But at this point in time Bärenz wasn't committed to a certain genre. Then Bärenz sought for the support of Johann Michael Möller, the radio director of the MDR. Möller was enthusiastic about Bärenz's idea. So he entered the MDR Symphony Orchestra into a contract. After that Bärenz started with contacting various musicians. At first the German soul singer Joy Denalane got into the project. Bärenz thought that soul and classic goes well together. For that reason the American soul musicians Bilal, Tweet and Dwele joined the ensemble. Bärenz could engage Larry Gold (former cellist of MFSB) and Daniel Felsenfeld (composer of classical music and Gold's son-in-law) as arrangers.

...
Wikipedia