Conductor

It's a now iconic masterpiece: Aaron Copland's legendary Fanfare for the Common Man. This music promises pure goosebumps. Together with the ballet music to Billy the Kid, it embodies the sound of America – endless expanses, an unbroken spirit of adventure, a pathos that still resonates today. Erich Wolfgang Korngold's suite from The Sea Hawk offers real adventure. Hollywood was Korngold's new home, and film music his artistic salvation. With Korngold's lush orchestral sound as cinema for the ears, the epic soundtrack to The Sea Hawk promises pure drama. And Sibelius? He is considered the epitome of the Nordic sound. No composer has shaped Finland musically like he has. His Second Symphony is more than "just" music; it is also a story of protest, of hope, of the Finnish struggle for freedom. It is not for nothing that it bears the nickname "Symphony of Independence." A manifesto in music, powerful, courageous, timeless.

Film music & Sibelius | Jonathan Stockhammer

The Bell, Bremen

A lecture followed by a rehearsal visit: Sabrina Hüpperling (Osterholz Biological Station) explains the important role of peatlands in climate protection. Afterwards, we'll head to the rehearsal for the 3rd Philharmonic Concert.

Climate & Moor

Tobacco Quarter Hall 1

If you want to do justice to the broad spectrum of Jonathan Stockhammer's musical work and his cross-genre curiosity, you have to leave the usual pigeonholes and classifications behind. Born in Los Angeles, the conductor who consistently pushes musicals limits devotes himself to the classical and contemporary repertoire with the same passion. This is the driving force behind his work: to understand and appreciate music in its universality. He loves opera, ballet and modern dance theatre, experimental premieres and unconventional concert formats that break down encrusted structures in favour of new listening experiences. Thanks to his astonishing talent for explaining music and understanding the audience not only as a resonating space but as a dialogue partner, he makes music newly understandable, newly experienceable.

EPSG:4326

Portrait concert by Capell-Compositrice Unsuk Chin

Festspielhaus Hellerau

2025 Music in PyeongChang Opening Concert: Mahler 'Resurrection'

PyeongChang Music Tent

Pentecost Festival: Late Night

Baden-Baden

The NDR Big Band meets the Ensemble Modern at a three-day festival in the Rolf Liebermann Studio: with three world premieres by Carla Kihlstedt, Alex Paxton and Ali N. Askin. Jonathan Stockhammer is at the podium.

NDR Big Band meets Ensemble Modern #2

Rolf Liebermann Studio

As a punishment for lacking compassion, the writer «Ich» (or «I») is forced to take in an idiot at home. This seems like an easy task: «Ich» sets out to choose his idiot and is quite pleased with himself and his willingness to host a «holy fool». The idiot seems to fit obediently into the lives of «Ich» and his wife, except for the fact that he barely speaks—aside from an occasional «Äch!», he doesn't say a word. But when the idiot suddenly, and without warning, defecates on the carpet one day, an uncontrollable spiral of violence, sex, and anarchy begins. Alfred Schnittke's opera Leben mit einem Idioten premiered in Amsterdam in 1992. The titular idiot was quickly interpreted as a caricature of Lenin, and the absurd, grotesque story as a biting parody of everyday life in the Soviet Union. However, the composer himself pointed out that his opera is 'by no means solely about Communism' but more broadly about a condition in which «the irrational dominates the rational». Thus, director Kirill Serebrennikov will bring the piece to the stage as the dystopian, contemporary story of a couple whose idiot becomes the catalyst for their already toxic relationship—a catalyst that brings the darkest, most destructive urges of human nature to the surface, along with an inclination for aggression and violence. Schnittke’s music, which combines quotes from Bach’s Matthäus-Passion, the Communist Internationale, a folk song about a birch tree, a tango from the 1930s, and further echoes of Chopin, Mahler, Shostakovich, and others in a polystylistic collage technique, has great potential for wit and irony, which will unfold under the direction of Jonathan Stockhammer with the Philharmonia Zurich. Susanne Elmark, Bo Skovhus, and the Zurich Opera Chorus, who will be on stage throughout the evening, take on the enormous challenges of their roles.

Leben mit einem Idioten

Opernhaus Zürich

Music of the time #HOTPINK

Museum Ludwig

Two female figures, in truth one and the same person, at odds with themselves in their constant struggle with the ring, and yet full of passion and devotion for the one goal: the stage that is life.

Conductor

Jonathan Stockhammer

Events

Upcoming events

Jun 19, 2026

Music of the time #HOTPINK · WDR Sinfonieorchester

2 - 6 Aug, 2026

Bernhard Lang/Michael Sturminger Brünnhilde Burns: A Game with Fire · Bayreuther Festspiele

Past events

24 - 25 Nov, 2025

Film music & Sibelius | Jonathan Stockhammer · Bremer Philharmoniker

Nov 19, 2025

Climate & Moor · Bremer Philharmoniker

Future and recently performed repertoire

Conductor in Fanfare for the Common Man by Copland

Bremer Philharmoniker

Conductor in Symphony No. 2 by Sibelius

Bremer Philharmoniker

Conductor in The Sea Hawk by Korngold

Bremer Philharmoniker

Conductor in Billy the Kid by Copland

Bremer Philharmoniker

Conductor in Agon by Stravinsky

WDR Sinfonieorchester

Conductor in Symphony No. 2 by Mahler

Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra

Conductor in Graffiti by Chin

Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

Conductor in Dr. Futurity by Deutsch

Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

Conductor in String Quartet in D major by Schönberg

Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

Conductor in Three Inventions by Benjamin

Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

Conductor in Märchenbilder by Abrahamsen

Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden

Conductor in Variations 'Aldous Huxley in memoriam' by Stravinsky

WDR Sinfonieorchester

Conductor in Brünnhilde Burns: A Game with Fire by Lang

Bayreuther Festspiele

About

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