It marks the start of a series of pioneering concerts fronted by the musician, who is the first German horn player to have a residency with a major British orchestra.
At 17, Mr Klieser enrolled at the prestigious Hochschule für Musik und Theater in Hannover. He has earned critical acclaim for “simply perfect” precision and tones in his performance.
Mr Klieser, who in 2014 won Germany’s major classical music award the Echo Klassik, wanted to play the horn aged three and was told he was too young because of the amount of energy needed in the lungs, but he proved his family and teachers wrong.
“When you start to learn the horn, the most difficult thing is just to play one note. With a piano you can just press a key, but with a brass instrument you need many things to combine in the right way to get a note,” he said in an interview on BSO’s website.
“It took a long, long time to get through the first steps. The first time I heard a French horn with an orchestra, I was completely amazed at what you could do with that instrument and said, ‘One day I want to be able to play that good’.
“I started to practice more and to [think] how I could overcome problems…When I was four the instrument was the same height so I could play with it on the ground.”
He added: “As we re-emerge from the global pandemic, celebrating live music and human connection, it’ll be wonderful to be embedded within such a creative community.”
Mr Klieser will also deliver a talk charting his journey at the University of Exeter’s Festival of Compassion on Thursday and perform at Exeter’s Great Hall on Friday.
He first performed in the UK at the Royal Conservatoire Birmingham in 2018 and now has six albums, with his recordings receiving up to 1 million streams on Spotify. He has worked with the UK’s One-Handed Musical Instrument Trust to make instruments more accessible to those with physical disabilities.
Dougie Scarfe, the chief executive of Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, said: “Felix is a phenomenal musician, his energy and drive is utterly captivating and I cannot wait for our audiences to witness his music-making.”
