Andreas Böhlke studied in Weimar and was associate principal French horn of the Staatskapelle Weimar for two years from 1987 before joining the Konzerthausorchester Berlin in his current position. Today he is a low-range French horn player. He devotes himself extensively to musical work with children, performs in the lively solo programme “Wär’ ich doch lieber Dirigent geworden” (“I would rather have been a conductor”) and is a passionate alphorn player. Since 2016, he can be seen around town as a hospital clown for “Lachen hilft e.V.”.

When everything has gone well and everyone is as happy as children after the concert. Tomorrow everything starts again and has to be just as good.

The French horn can be soft and delicate or loud and blaring – sometimes with the wind instruments, sometimes with the brass instruments. It’s wonderful and always a challenge.

Actually, I always wanted to be an actor and, above all, make people laugh – now I can do that as a hospital clown.

I would like to be able to play the oboe because I like the sound very much.

My first big concert experience in the audience was Mahler’s 5th Symphony at the Gewandhaus – after that I decided that I really wanted to join a symphony orchestra.

My favourite dish is yeast dumplings with blueberries from my Grandma Gertrud’s recipe. Whenever I hike the Rennsteig, I eat the dish on Inselsberg Mountain. They make it in a pretty similar way.