Composer

A traveling journeyman, through his flute playing and with the help of a musical mechanism built by Master Florian, prevents a rather decadent princess from being lynched by her own people.

The Music Box and the Princess

Halle Opera House

Opera Café

Celebratory concert for Ralf Weikert’s 85th birthday

Zurich Opera House

Sunday Matinee 03: Andris Poga & Rafael Fingerlos

Great Festival House

Lithuanian conductor Giedrė Šlekytė masterfully bridges the worlds of symphonic music and opera, making this programme a perfect fit for her talents. Schreker’s Nachtstück from Der ferne Klang evokes a haunting allure, with a mysterious sound that ties the protagonist to a lost love. Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin brims with tension, its stark opening capturing the harshness of urban life. His Second Violin Concerto, composed amidst the rise of fascism, balances raw power with tender lyricism. Alena Baeva, laureate of the 2005 Queen Elisabeth Violin Competition, brings these emotions to life, and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra is thrilled to share the stage with her.

Alena Baeva plays Bartók

Queen Elisabeth Hall

Director Christof Loy has already helped four little-known operas from the early 20th century make a successful comeback at the Deutsche Oper Berlin: Erich Wolfgang Korngold's DAS WUNDER DER HELIANE and Riccardo Zandonai's FRANCESCA DA RIMINI were followed by other long-forgotten operatic treasures: Franz Schreker's DER SCHATZGRÄBER in 2022 and finally Ottorino Respighi's LA FIAMMA in 2024.

The Treasure Hunter (Der Schatzgräber)

Deutsche Oper Berlin

This dynamic program takes you on a journey through contrasting styles, from the playful charm of Strauss to the lush modern textures of Schreker and the grand elegance of Mozart. Experience the lively momentum of Strauss’s Perpetuum Mobile, Schreker's mesmerizing Kammersymphonie, a rich exploration of harmony and color, and Mozart's majestic Symphony No. 39.

EPSG:4326

Mozart Symphony No. 39

New Marigny Theatre

Northshore Classics: Mozart Symphony No. 39

Greater Covington Center

Michael Collins, one of the world's leading clarinet artists, will bring a world premiere performance by Sally Beamish.

ISAAC

Espoo Cultural Centre

We have enjoyed our long-standing collaboration with the Folkwang University of the Arts.

Folkwang Gala 2025

Bochumer Symphoniker

Bach is the foundation. His works are even stored in space, in case someone from distant galaxies wants to listen and get an impression of us humans. At the beginning of the 20th century, contemporary composers increasingly explored the work of Johann Sebastian Bach, using some of his best-known and most popular...

Close To The Foundation

Von-Busch-Hof Konzertant e.V.

South African soprano Golda Schultz, the ‘glorious’ star of 2020’s Last Night, returns to the Proms with songs by Bernstein, Gershwin, Weill and others. Bask in the sultry heat of the Deep South in ‘Summertime’ from Porgy and Bess; feel the intensity of first love in ‘Somewhere’ from West Side Story. A programme of contrasting moods and colours also includes Schreker’s sensuous Chamber Symphony – glittering and mercurial – and the bold, folk-infused dances of Stravinsky’s ballet The Firebird.

Golda Schultz Sings Gershwin and Bernstein

Royal Albert Hall

Tchaikovsky’s fifth symphony is a highly personal and emotionally charged unfurling of ominous “fate” themes transforming into exultant triumph. Alexander Arutiunian combined the post-Romantic Russian tradition with Armenian folk elements, qualities readily evident in his beloved 1950 Trumpet Concerto, a cornerstone of brass repertoire for its dance elements and challenging cadenza. Schreker composed his Romantic Suite during his prestigious position as director of the Hochschule für Musik in Berlin and is known for creating impressionistic sound worlds of ever-changing colors and moods. The Tanz (Dance) movement of his suite is a grand finale of orchestral fireworks and mercurial rhythms.

Classics I: Orchestral Fate

West Ottawa High School Performing Arts Center

The Chamber Orchestra of Europe (COE), founded in 1981 by former members of the European Community Youth Orchestra, has long been one of the world's leading orchestras. Still organized as a project-based independent ensemble, this ensemble has been a regular guest at the Musikfest since 1994, and this year marks its twelfth appearance. With Robin Ticciati, Chief Conductor of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and newly appointed Honorary Member of the COE, the program showcases the richness of music from the first half of the 20th century. All of the composers featured in the program were closely connected to a wide variety of musical movements, thus demonstrating a truly pluralistic approach to style, yet never questioning tonality in their works of great expressive density. And when the South African soprano Golda Schultz sings songs and arias by Gershwin, Weill, Korngold and Bernstein at her music festival debut with her wonderfully warm, extremely expressive and technically flawless voice, then happiness is complete!

To new shores

Die Glocke

The MDR Symphony Orchestra and organist Denny Wilke form a delightful sonic alliance in this program: Both perform works by Johann Sebastian Bach, including the famous Passacaglia in C minor and the equally famous Orchestral Suite in B minor. The program is complemented by Franz Schreker's atmospheric Intermezzo and Edvard Grieg's Suite, Op. 40, a stylistically charming return to the Baroque period, which the composer intended as a homage to the Danish-Norwegian poet Ludvig Holberg.

Bach plus

Stadtkirche St. Wenzel

Founded in 1981, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe is one of the world’s most esteemed chamber orchestras. Comprised of top musicians from across Europe, the orchestra collaborates with leading conductors and soloists worldwide. What unites its musicians is a shared artistic vision that transcends borders and nationalities. The orchestra has recorded hundreds of acclaimed albums, many of them for the prestigious classical music label Deutsche Grammophon.

Korngold! Stravinsky! Gershwin! Weill! – Chamber Orchestra of Europe

Musiikkitalo

Visit Romania, Norway, and Panama as guest conductor Ron Spigelman leads the FWSO strings in an evening inspired by folk traditions, dance, and music of the Romantic era. Bartók’s Rumanian Folk Dances and Still’s Danzas de Panamá are rooted in cultural traditions —Romanian fiddle tunes and Panamanian Afro-Latin melodies. Grieg’s Two Norwegian Airs evokes the serenity of Norway’s countryside, including the movement titled “Cow Keeper’s Tune and Peasant Dance.” Schreker’s Intermezzo offers a lush, orchestral contrast with its rich, Romantic string textures.

Night of Strings at the Garden: Travels in Sound

Fort Worth Botanic Garden

The Komische Oper Berlin has an opera choir in a class of its own. Awards from the trade magazine "Opernwelt" as opera choir of the year are proof of this, but you really just have to experience them in their full force, the choir soloists of the Komische Oper Berlin. Normally they shine in productions from Handel oratorios to Berlin jazz operettas, dancing cheerfully and playing with great professionalism. In this concert, all forces are focused on their core competence: exquisite choir sound in a class of its own. With great romantic works of the genre by Alexander Zemlinsky and Erich Wolfgang Korngold to rarely heard pieces by Franz Schreker under the direction of choir director David Cavelius.

Symphony Concert: Voices

Komische Oper Berlin @Schillertheater

When Gustav Mahler confronted eternity, he turned to the poetry of classical China. Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth) is the result: a symphony that distils every last drop of life’s sorrow and sweetness into six heart-piercing songs. Mahler’s Viennese contemporary Schreker, meanwhile, went for broke: pouring white-hot sensuality and Klimt-like colours into a chamber symphony that positively burst with outsize emotions.

Elder conducts Mahler

Barbican Centre

Lithuania's vibrant musical life provides the classical world with outstanding artists - and above all female artists. Giedrė Šlekytė and Raminta Šerkšnytė not only share the same country of origin, whose eventful history and archaic nature are impressively reflected in Šerkšnytė's music, both are considered musical ambassadors of Lithuania in their respective fields and attract international attention. Inspired by the "rich and sweet soprano" of his wife Pauline, Richard Strauss developed a preference for the song, both in the intimate form with piano accompaniment and for the sonically enlarged orchestral song. Franz Schreker dispensed with such genre designations when he simply called his last two songs "Vom ewigen Leben". The two songs based on texts by Walt Whitman mark a high point in Schreker's rich vocal work with their ingenious interweaving of voice and accompaniment. The Israeli soprano Chen Reiss is not only an admired Strauss interpreter but also a committed pioneer in bringing Schreker's works back to the concert stage. Scotland, with its legendary landscape and history, was popular among the artists of the Romantic era. Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy found inspiration in Scotland for his Symphony No. 3, in which "Scottish moods" can actually be heard, from fog, storm and rain to a clarinet that performs like a bagpipe.

Schreker Šerkšnytė Strauss Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Gasteig HP8

From sultry Parisian nightclubs to the biting sophistication of Berlin’s Weimar era, cabaret had a vibrant history years before it first appeared in New York. Join Parlando for the first installment of The Cabaret Project, a two-season collaboration with soprano Measha Brueggergosman-Lee, exploring the art of cabaret and its journey across the Atlantic. The program includes Erik Satie’s whimsical Trois petites pieces montées, Franz Schreker’s evocative Chamber Symphony, and William Bolcom’s irreverent Cabaret Songs for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra.

Parlando: The Cabaret Project, Part 1

Kaufman Music Center

From sultry Parisian nightclubs to the biting sophistication of  Berlin’s Weimar era, cabaret had a vibrant history years before it first  appeared in New York. Join Parlando for the first installment of The Cabaret Project,  a two-season collaboration with soprano Measha Brueggergosman-Lee,  exploring the art of cabaret and its journey across the Atlantic. The  program includes Erik Satie’s whimsical Trois petites pieces montées, Franz Schreker’s evocative Chamber Symphony, and William Bolcom’s irreverent Cabaret Songs for Soprano and Chamber Orchestra.

The Cabaret Project, Part 1

This conductorless chamber orchestra comprised of talented young musicians brings to life a rich program of works by Franz Schreker, Brahms, Tchaikovsky, and LA-based composer Quenton Blanche. The concert will also feature a dazzling performance by cellist and Music Academy Concerto Competition winner Angela Rose Padula.

Academy Virtuosi

Colburn School

This concert challenges us to hear familiar classical delights with new ears. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's memorable Eine Kleine Nachtmusik ("a little nocturne") is a piece of light entertainment by a staggering musical genius at the height of his power. Franz Joseph Haydn, Mozart's teacher, pushed the technical limits of in his time a relatively new solo instrument in his Cello Concerto in D major. Underrated German composer Franz Schreker's Chamber Symphony is an emotional kaleidoscope of hyper-Romanticism and Modernist harmonies, an evocative representation of a musical culture in transition. The program returns to Mozart with the celebrated overture to his opera The Marriage of Figaro, a comedic romp based on Pierre Beaumarchai's appropriately-titled play "The Crazy Day."

Haydn Cello Concerto

Sunset Center

Presenting creative arrangements for chamber ensembles by Arnold Schoenberg, Gustav Mahler and Alexander Zemlinsky at the renowned Wigmore Hall in London, Klangforum Wien celebrates these musical pioneers of the city of Vienna, who opposed the prevailing conservatism with their new ideas in music in the early 1900s. Under the baton of its Conductor-in-Residence Vimbayi Kaziboni, the ensemble is joined by mezzo-soprano Barbara Kozelj.

Wigmore Hall, London

Sir Simon Rattle & BRSO Academy

Bayerischer Rundfunk Studio 1

Celebrating the art form of film scoring and cinematic music, Guest violinist Charles Yang, recipient of the Leonard Bernstein Award, has been described by the Boston Globe as one who “plays classical violin with the charisma of a rock star.” His amazing talent will be displayed through his performance of Kris Bowers’ For a Younger Self. The work explores the journey of a young protagonist as they overcome fear, stress, and self-doubt. The ASO will also perform works by John Williams, Herrmann, Korngold, and Schreker. Hear music from your favorite film composers and classic features such as Much Ado About Nothing.

Masters of the Silver Screen

UAB’s Alys Stephens Center

Exploring the people, composers, and literature silenced by Nazi Germany, Silenced Voices, features a world premiere commission by Victoria Bond, “Anne Frank’s Tree.” Through a musical meditation on Anne’s Tree as a symbol of hope, Bond connects audiences to the sapling of Anne’s tree that grows at the Indianapolis Children’s Museum.  2022 IVCI Silver Medalist, Julian Rhee, performs the stirring Mendelssohn Violin Concerto. Additional banned composers Schreker and Korngold will also be featured.  

Silenced Voices

Butler University

We are brought to Vienna, the Vienna of the late 1800 and early 1900; to the city of great art and paradoxes, to the city of elegance and walzes, to the city of eroticism and psychoanalysis. It was an age of great discoveries and creativity, of deep introspection and wild expressionism. Wien, wien, nur du allein has shown this kind of light-heartedness and profoundness at the same time.

Epiphany Concert

Stockholm City Hall

Music Director Andreas Delfs conducts Gustav Mahler’s savage and sublime Fifth Symphony, famed for its heart-wrenching Adagietto. And The New York Times reports that Eric Owens, “speaks to you even in his silences… and shakes you when he sings.” Hear him perform Mahler’s folk-poetry influenced “Songs of a Wayfarer.”

Andreas Conducts Mahler

Eastman Theatre

Long ago, small groups of classical musicians entertained nobility in the elegant salons where they held court. The music was designed for the space – intimate, inviting, elegant in every detail.

Today, modern audiences can partake in this experience in a less formal setting, with a series of exquisite chamber concerts, each preceded by a wine reception.

Chamber Night #4: Schreker to Shostakovich

Music Academy of the West

Follow along on a journey through the 20th century, where thrilling modernism and contemporary sounds meet. Barbara Hannigan and musicians from the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra present music connected to the innovative Arnold Schoenberg.

In the footsteps of Schoenberg

Stenhammarsalen

A laboratory for the way music is taught, presented and experienced, the New World Symphony consists of 87 young musicians who are granted fellowships lasting up to three years. The fellowship program offers in-depth exposure to traditional and modern repertoire, professional development training and personalized experiences working with leading guest conductors, soloists and visiting faculty.

Remembering MTT

New World Center

The artist’s all-consuming pursuit of perfection lies at the heart of Franz Schreker’s sumptuously orchestrated opera. We meet the young composer Fritz, driven by a desperate desire to recapture “the distant sound” he once heard so clearly. What begins as artistic longing becomes an obsession. He abandons everything – even his beloved Grete – and sets out into the world in search of the elusive sound, which seems only to fade the further he travels. Fritz fails to understand that the sound he seeks springs from the love of the woman he left behind. The question is whether he will realise this truth before it is too late.

The distant sound

The Royal Danish Playhouse

Once upon a time in Vienna, music and desire became inseparable.

In the city of Freud and Klimt, no emotion was off-limits, and composers transformed fantasy into music that glittered with colour and surged with emotion. Zemlinsky’s The Mermaid – inspired by his unrequited love for Alma Schindler – tells of a mermaid who sacrifices everything for love. After Alma married Gustav Mahler and later began a relationship with Franz Schreker, tension and fascination tangled further: Schreker gazed into the darkness of night, creating Nachtstück, a work of longing and obsession. Zemlinsky’s student Korngold later composed his glowing, nostalgic Violin Concerto – dedicated to Alma – as he built a new life in Hollywood. Tonight, Edward Gardner and Korean violin sensation Bomsori bring these intertwined dreams and desires to life.

The Mermaid

Southbank Centre

It’s time to leave all external distractions at the Ulster Hall door and bathe in a concert full of rich melody and lush orchestration. Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony finds absolute joy in the natural world, from its opening flute solo that sounds like birdsong to its whirling dervish of a finale.

Ulster Orchestra: Forest Murmurs

Ulster Hall

Brahms’s soaring Violin Concerto sings through the strings of Italian virtuoso Francesca Dego under the baton of Joshua Weilerstein. Strauss II’s elegant Emperor Waltz and Ravel’s exhilarating La Valse highlight an evening glowing with Viennese charm and romantic nostalgia.

Composer

Franz Schreker

Events

Upcoming events

Nov 8, 2026

In the footsteps of Schoenberg · Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra

Dec 20, 2026

Remembering MTT · New World Symphony

7 - 24 Mar, 2027

The distant sound · Det Kongelige Teater

Apr 7, 2027

The Mermaid · London Philharmonic Orchestra

Apr 9, 2027

Ulster Orchestra: Forest Murmurs · Ulster Hall

Past events

Apr 1 - May 24, 2026

The Music Box and the Princess · Staatskapelle Halle

Feb 22, 2026

Celebratory concert for Ralf Weikert’s 85th birthday · Opernhaus Zürich

About

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