"I very much regret having to dismantle this renowned orchestra," said Christian Koehler-Ma, the orchestra’s bankruptcy consultant.

Last year, the Berlin senate reduced the orchestra’s funding by about 3 million Eur ($4 million) per season. After searching for months for private investors and sponsors, orchestra managers fell short of their fundraising goals, forcing the 55-musician group to close its doors even though musicians had agreed to take a massive pay cut.

The orchestra had been financed by the federal government since 1966, and the decision to cut funding last summer led to outbursts of protest from across Germany. Famous personalities including folk artist Reinhard Mey and former German President Walter Scheel came out in support of the orchestra, but the hundreds of voices raised in its favor weren’t enough to entice corporate sponsors to foot the bill for the group.

At a Berlin Senate hearing in March, orchestra manager Andreas Moritz unsuccessfully requested an additional 80,000 Eur ($104,000) in funding that would have kept the orchestra alive while additional sponsors were sought.

Throughout its decades-long history, the Berliner Symphoniker proved itself a world-class orchestra with a penchant for reaching out to fans of all spectrums of music.

In recent years, they worked with the likes of Metallica, Nena and the German band the Scorpions to produce crossover concerts as well as putting together a public outreach program that introduced thousands of local children to classical music. The orchestra toured countries around the world including the United States, Japan and 20 other nations.