The Dresdner Musikfestspiele 2025 is not just a music festival; it's a vibrant tapestry woven with themes of peace, reconciliation, and artistic brilliance. From orchestral masterpieces to intimate chamber music and groundbreaking jazz performances, this year's festival promises an unforgettable journey. Highlights include the collaboration of the Israel Philharmonic and Munich Philharmonic under Lahav Shani, a tribute to persecuted artists at Frauenkirche, the NHK Symphony Orchestra’s debut in Dresden, and much more. Dive into a week of extraordinary musical experiences that resonate with history and the promise of harmony.

Dresdner Musikfestspiele 2025: A Celebration of Peace, Legacy, and Musical Mastery

What began in 2023 with a concert performance of »Das Rheingold« and continued in 2024 with »Die Walküre« and now with »Siegfried« is no less than a redefinition of standards in Wagner interpretation. The project »The Wagner Cycles« is dedicated to a unique collaboration between academic expertise and practice, tackling Richard Wagner’s monumental opera tetralogy. In Dresden and on tour through Europe’s musical centers, the results of this spectacular sound workshop and the historically informed perspective on Wagner’s epoch-making theatrical oeuvre have been celebrated as revolutionary. In the third part of the »Ring«, »Siegfried», depictions of nature and the visceral portrayals of action reveal Wagner at the height of his expressive musical powers.

The Wagner Cycles on Tour RICHARD WAGNER: »SIEGFRIED«

Philharmonie de Paris

Kölner Philharmonie

Die Richard-Wagner-Akademie der Dresdner Musikfestspiele hat sich für dieses Programm mit drei außerordentlichen Kammermusikwerken beschäftigt. Im Zentrum steht dabei Richard Wagners Musik, die jedoch nicht ohne den Schatten seiner antisemitischen Haltung betrachtet werden kann, und im Gedenken an das Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs vor 80 Jahren mit dem Schicksal und dem Wirken zweier jüdischer Komponisten in Beziehung gesetzt wird.

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Musikalische Farben von Wagner, Mendelssohn und Haas Jan Vogler & Friends

Robert Schumann House

Kulturzentrum Parksäle

Richard-Wagner-Stätten Graupa (Jagdschloss)

For an evening dedicated to peace, the Israeli conductor Lahav Shani brings together two world-class orchestras at the Kreuzkirche: the Munich Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. The concert, in which members of each orchestra share a desk, reflects not only the 80-year anniversary of the end of World War II and thus the liberation from the Nazi reign of terror, but also marks the beginning of the history of reconciliation between Germany and Israel. 

Israel Philharmonic Orchestra — Munich Philharmonic — Shani

Kreuzkirche, Dresden

For his second Festival concert, Lahav Shani moves from the conductor’s podium to the piano. Together with members of the Munich Philharmonic and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, he presents a unique evening of intimate chamber music. The program is dedicated to artists who were persecuted and found a refuge in music, or whose works were banned for ideological reasons – and where could this find a more appropriate place than the crypt of the Frauenkirche, itself a symbol of peace and tolerance! The pianist and composer Ilse Fromm-Michaels was silenced due to her husband’s Jewish family background. In her »Musica larga« of 1944, her voice is heard in a moving Adagio. At the Theresienstadt (Terezín) ghetto, the Austrian composer Viktor Ullmann composed his String Quartet No. 3, shot through with sad beauty. And Dmitri Shostakovich’s only Piano Quintet tells of the inner struggle between persecution and conformism, written four years after the devastating article in »Pravda« which would change the composer’s life forever.

 Lahav Shani & Friends

Frauenkirche Dresden

In 2025, the Dresdner Musikfestspiele brings the NHK Symphony Orchestra, renowned throughout the world as one of Asia’s leading orchestras, to Dresden for the first time, where it gives two performances. Under the baton of its chief conductor Fabio Luisi, the former general music director of the State Opera of Saxony in Dresden, it will join forces with the outstanding Japanese violinist Akiko Suwanai to interpret Alban Berg’s astoundingly beautiful and moving Violin Concerto »Dem Andenken eines Engels« (To the Memory of an Angel) on the evening before the Festival’s official opening night.

Suwanai – NHK Symphony Orchestra - Luisi

The Festival’s opening concert stands witness to the close musical friendship Jan Vogler and Fabio Luisi have enjoyed for many years. When the conductor now finally brings his famous Japanese orchestra to the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, this promises a glorious evening, featuring a highlight of cello literature and one of the great symphonic masterworks. Performed by the Festival’s intendant Jan Vogler, Joseph Haydn’s Cello Concerto No. 1 in C-major was long believed lost, until a copy of the parts was discovered at the National Museum in Prague in 1961. 

Fang — Vogler — Nhk Symphony Orchestra — Luisi

Palace of Culture

The Musikfestspiele, which regularly hosts the world’s leading orchestras, is delighted that the Chicago Symphony Orchestra – one of the most venerable and prestigious orchestras in the USA – will stop in Dresden once again during its 2025 tour of Europe. Under the baton of the Dutch star conductor Jaap van Zweden, the American musicians will fill Dresden’s Kulturpalast with Gustav Mahler’s visionary music. 

Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Jaap Van Zweden

Kulturpalast Dresden

A few notes are enough to recognize Arvo Pärt’s music. In his oeuvre, profundity and pure beauty merge in a unique way – moving listeners and inspiring them to contemplate the essential things in life. In 2025, the composer born in Paide, Estonia in 1935 celebrates his 90th birthday – one of the very greatest living composers. And what better way to celebrate this event than with a concert? The program includes works for choir and organ, inviting the audience to discover Pärt’s art in its full density, intensity and enchantment.

Toomoja — Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir — Kaljuste

Martin-Luther-Kirche

In 1853, the 20-year-old Johannes Brahms was traveling along the Rhine on foot, and he stopped to visit the Schumanns in Düsseldorf. »Robert loves him. He is a great joy to him, both as a human and an artist«, Clara noted with enthusiasm. The close friendship between the young composer and the older married artists survived even difficult times. After Robert Schumann entered the insane asylum, Brahms supported Clara, pregnant at the time, and her six children.

 Martina Gedeck & Schumann Quartett

Stadtkirche St. Marien

A concert with the Staatskapelle Dresden under the baton of Tugan Sokhiev and with Sol Gabetta as a soloist: this is the stuff musical dreams are made of. Especially since Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 1 and Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 are outstanding works of their respective composers, which means the audience is in for an extra-special treat. »Since Beethoven, nothing even similar has been written…!«, the conductor Arthur Nikisch uttered when he gave the first performance of Bruckner’s Seventh in 1884.

Gabetta — Staatskapelle Dresden — Sokhiev

Semperoper Dresden

The organ is known as the king of instruments for a reason. Its sound is sublime, sometimes even out of this world. All the stops will be pulled out – literally! – when the Kulturpalast’s own organist Olivier Latry joins his wife Shin-Young Lee at the keyboard. The duo will coax unforgettable sounds from the organ at the main auditorium of the Kulturpalast, which boasts 4,109 pipes and a sound to rival its visual impressiveness. The program awaiting the audience is highly intriguing, as it features works not originally written for organ, but of such polyphony and orchestral colorfulness that they unfold an effect all their own on this grand instrument. They include »Le Sacre du printemps« by Igor Stravinsky and the famous »Lever du jour« from Maurice Ravel’s »Daphnis et Chloé«.

Olivier Latry & Shin-Young Lee

Even as a teenager, she met Oscar Peterson and Chick Corea, two of the greatest jazz piano legends. The Japanese pianist Hiromi is one of a kind, a superstar not only in her homeland. Her musical ideas are inspired by classical music, fusion jazz and progressive rock. Over the course of her 20-year career, the virtuoso artist and Grammy winner has surprised her audiences time and again, without any trace of (sonic) routine creeping in. Her latest project is big on groove, and together with the fusion jazz band Sonicwonder, specifically founded for this occasion, she takes the listeners into fascinating sonic dream worlds in the program »SonicWonderland«. This is hard to top when it comes to playfulness and melodic inventiveness.

Hiromi's Sonicwonder

STROMWERK | Kulturarena Kraftwerk Mitte

Hailed by the press as the »ruler of the piano « (La Provence) and a »wonder of articulation« (NDR Kultur), at little more than 25 years of age, Mao Fujita is at home on the world’s great stages. Born in Tokyo in 1998, the Japanese pianist began playing the piano at the age of three. After studying music at the music academy of his native city, he then perfected his playing by studying with Kirill Gerstein in Berlin, where he lives today.

Piano Recital Mao Fujita

Palais im Großen Garten

»Klingende Stadt« (Musical City) has established itself as a popular and fixed event for all amateur musicians in Dresden. An ensemble that is outstanding in this field will perform not only during the traditional event in the city center (see Event No. 31 on May 31), but during an additional concert at the Kreuzkirche, featuring a special project: since its founding in 1961, the Dresden University Orchestra has been an active part of Dresden’s musical life. Now it will be led by its charismatic South American artistic director Helmuth Reichel Silva in a collaboration with the band of the Dresden Music Academy and a soprano from the Wrocław Music Academy, performing two extraordinary works: Henryk Mikołaj Górecki’s Third Symphony, which sets to music a text found on the wall of a prison cell in the Gestapo headquarters at Zakopane, among others, was first performed in 1977. Its breakthrough came in 1992, when it could be found on the pop charts for a few weeks.

Dresden University Orchestra Meets Deep Purple

For decades, Mitsuko Uchida has been one of the leading international piano performers. Time and again, the »Grande Dame of subtle notes«, as BR-Klassik once described the musician, has been celebrated for her Schubert interpretations. Therefore, her recital at the Kulturpalast, which has proven itself a commendable location for top pianists appearing at the Musikfestspiele (such as Hélène Grimaud and Igor Levit last year), also features this composer.

Piano Recital Mitsuko Uchida

»In C«, a colorful excursion into the world of minimal music, marks the Dresdner Musikfestspiele debut of an icon of modern dance, Sasha Waltz. The music for the acclaimed choreography is based on Terry Riley’s eponymous, ground-breaking composition of 1964 – a key work of minimal music with a revolutionary effect. Waltz has created a multi-layered choreography from its 53 sound figures, with a movement corresponding to each of them. »It is a democratic piece about being part of a group as an individual, not an individual in the group«, says Waltz. The performance is rounded out by the live performance of the Swiss industrial band The Young Gods.

Sasha Waltz & Guests:  »In C«

Staatsschauspiel Dresden

What better place to celebrate music together than in the heart of Dresden, before the impressive backdrop of the historical center? In 2025, the popular open-air event »Dresden sings & makes music« once again occupies its traditional place between Cathedral and Brühlsche Terrasse, inviting everyone to listen and sing along, and serving up an entertaining, diverse program of familiar and popular melodies. Suspiciously good sound will be guaranteed by the Federal Police Orchestra Berlin and singers from various local choruses under the baton of Gerd Herklotz. Ina Richter’s charming moderation will contribute to a wonderful evening under an open sky – a treat for every music-loving heart.

Dresden sings & makes music

Brühlsche Terrasse / Schlossplatz

Founded in 1991 by four dynamic women at the Music Academy Franz Liszt in Weimar, the Klenke Quartet has never made changes to its lineup. The conclusion that this must be a case of perfect chemistry is absolutely justified. The four string players have retained their »smoldering« sound, which a critic identified early on in their career. Together with Annett Renneberg, who played Signorina Elettra in Donna Leon’s »Commissario Brunetti« adaptations for television, they will take the audience on a colorful journey entitled »And Venice, always Venice«: the actress, who wanted to be an opera singer early in her life, reads texts and poems about what might be Italy’s most famous city.

Annett Renneberg and Klenke Quartett

The award-winning singer and composer Alma Naidu, who grew up in Munich in a household of musicians, is one of the most interesting protagonists on the German jazz scene. The »Süddeutsche Zeitung« called her »one of the country’s greatest vocal talents«. The artist, who won the »BMW Welt Young Artist Jazz Award« and the »Kurt Maas Jazz Award«, made it into the Top 10 of the German Jazz Charts in 2022. Ever since, the artist, who studied both classical music and jazz and was discovered by Wolfgang Haffner, the winner of multiple »ECHO Jazz« Awards, has been touring major concert halls together with her band.

 Alma Naidu & Band

Jazzclub Tonne

After Seong-Jin Cho won the Musikfestspiele audience’s hearts during the past season with his piano recital at the Palais im Großen Garten, the exceptional South Korean pianist returns to Dresden with an orchestra and one of the jewels of piano literature: Chopin’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in E-minor. Inspired by his first love, Konstancja Gładkowska, Chopin used the entire spectrum of sonic possibilities his instrument offered, opening up all-new emotional and musical dimensions for himself and subsequent performers. A rich orchestral sound is guaranteed by the Göteborgs Symfoniker, founded in 1905 and appointed the Swedish National Orchestra in 1997.

Cho — Göteborgs Symfoniker — Rouvali

»Bach is the beginning and end of all music «, the composer Max Reger is said to have commented on the baroque master. His motets are imbued with a universal spirit and creative force, and the Sächsisches Vokalensemble and Matthias Jung celebrate Bach’s 340th birthday as befits him. In 2022, these musicians released a highly acclaimed recording of Bach’s motets, quickly hailed as a benchmark. Unlike the cantatas, the motets were not written for Sunday services, but for private use on various occasions. This is also the reason why the individual works are so varied, despite all of them being beholden to the 16th-century tradition of vocal polyphony. No better performers for these effective pieces, in which contrapuntal and concertizing elements, chorale technique and double-choir structures meet in a virtuoso manner, could be imagined than the Dresden-based choir and its conductor!

Sächsisches Vokalensemble and Matthias Jung

Annenkirche

Two outstanding young musicians give an atmospheric duo recital in the idyllically located Palais im Großen Garten: only last season, the Finnish-Cuban pianist Anton Mejias, born in 2001, won over the festival audience with his piano recital in the same location. Now, he returns with a violin partner, one of the most high-profile violinists of his generation. The American violinist Chad Hoopes, born in 1994, has made a name for himself worldwide with his outstanding talent and brilliant tone. The two young virtuosi have put together a resounding program inspired by the theme of love, in keeping with the Festival’s motto. Fiery finger acrobatics and an enchanting sound blend to create a concert leaving nothing to be desired.

Chad Hoopes & Anton Mejias

The Brentano String Quartet, whose name refers to Beethoven’s »immortal beloved« Antonie Brentano, is known for its brilliant ensemble playing, technical perfection and remarkable vibrancy. In 2025, the American quartet, which looks back on several acclaimed performances at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, returns with a work commissioned from Lei Liang, a composer born in China, but now living in the USA and considered one of the most astonishing voices in New Music.

Brentano String Quartet

It’s hard to believe, but the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain celebrates its 40th birthday in 2025. The Ukes already gave a preview of this anniversary year in 2024, were immediately invited for a return visit, and left no doubt that musical perfection and the best of entertainment go hand in hand here. Even if the musicians and their »bonsai guitars« have long become an institution, there is nothing serious about it, and genre boundaries are ignored with a wink and a pluck of the strings. The birthday program is dedicated to its unique mix of great music and typical British humor. The musical journey ranges from ABBA to ZZ Top, making stops at Tchaikovsky, Nirvana, Bluegrass and Lady Gaga. Surprises are guaranteed!

The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain

The third edition of the »International Piano Competition Carl Maria von Weber« took place from October 6 to 13, 2024 at the Saxonian State School of Music in Dresden. This competition offers young talents an international platform to meet others, present themselves, learn from one another and compare themselves with their peers. The participants thus have the opportunity to gather unique experiences for their artistic development, and for many of them, this competition is a milestone of their early career. An important element and the crowning of the event is the concert of the prize winners at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele, which has now become a tradition, lending the competition a brilliant finale.

Prize Winner's Concert

Hochschule für Musik

Founded by members of the Berlin and the Vienna Philharmonic, the ensemble Philharmonix is fearless in its musical explorations, combining the highest level of music-making with great entertainment. Its trademark is an incomparable virtuosity and the joy the musicians bring to their music-making, which is immediately communicated to the audience. The stylistic breadth is breathtaking, encompassing classical, jazz, folk, pop, but also Latin. Not everything here is classical music, but everything has musical class. 

Philharmonix

A new and wonderful combination of orchestra and conductor leaves its calling card: the Wiener Symphoniker, or Vienna Symphony Orchestra, and Petr Popelka. The Czech musician – who, incidentally, was associate principal double bass of the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden until 2020 – is considered a shooting star on the conductor’s podium. Together, they offer audience favorites: after beginning with Beethoven, the Viennese orchestra and its chief delve into romantic sound worlds. Korngold’s Violin Concerto, as virtuosic as it is mellifluous, is in great hands with the French star violinist Renaud Capuçon. 

Capuçon — Wiener Symphoniker — Popelka

A musical matinee of superlatives: this fabulously French program was chosen by Jan Vogler together with his high-carat musical friends from France, the violinist Renaud Capuçon, the pianist Hélène Mercier and the principal clarinetist of the Orchestre de Paris, Pascal Moraguès. In 1916, Debussy, who was suffering from illness, completed his originally planned six-part cycle with his third sonata in G minor. 

Capuçon — Vogler — Moraguès — Mercier

Longing, melancholy and nostalgia are the hallmarks of fado, an artform from Portugal expressing the outlook of its people in entrancingly emotional melodies. The reigning queen of this musical style is Mariza from Lisbon, who has brought the »Portuguese blues« to the world for more than twenty years, to unprecedented success. Like few other artists, she is able to deliver fado’s world-weariness with a grand voice and gripping expressivity. In keeping with the Festival’s motto, the program is dedicated to »Amor«, love, and invites the audience to close its eyes, strolling through the streets of the Portuguese capital in their minds and listening to the stories written by life itself.

Mariza

The legendary London Symphony Orchestra and its newly-minted chief conductor Sir Antonio Pappano are a dream team. Raised in the USA by parents with Italian roots, the British conductor first conducted the orchestra in 1996 in an opera recording, and he describes this experience as overwhelming: »I thought I’d just gotten into a Ferrari and stepped on the gas pedal«. The conductor and the LSO will give a sample of this dynamic music-making at the Kulturpalast, where they welcome the violinist Lisa Batiashvili as the soloist in the first half of the concert, which is dedicated to Mozart. The charismatic, acclaimed artist is perfectly cast in Mozart’s A-major Violin Concerto, in which melodies of heavenly beauty stand next to more ambiguous sounds. The much-vaunted brilliant orchestra sound will ring out in Berlioz’ programmatic behemoth of a symphony, recounting the »amour fou« of an unknown artist in five episodes.

Batiashvili − London Symphony Orchestra − Pappano

Born in Hamburg in 1994, the composer, pianist and producer Niklas Paschburg stands for spheric sonic creations, oscillating between neo-classical and ambient pop. With this atmospheric mix, the artist, now living in Berlin, has gathered a large group of international fans, which makes him the perfect guest for the series »Classical Beats« at Dresden’s Reithalle, an unconventional space inviting unconventional musical encounters.

Niklas Paschburg

Reithalle Dresden

This is the eighth edition of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele’s great participatory project, which has become a fixture in the Festival calendar and attracts more than 1,000 performers every year, demonstrating their artistic potential to the audience: in 2025, the Festival once again invites individual artists, orchestras, choruses, bands, dancers and ensembles of all genres to apply to appear in the popular format with their own programs, making Dresden’s city center resound for a whole afternoon and sending a positive message through the uniting power of music. All those who love music-making are invited, whether as soloists or groups, amateurs or professionals, whether classical, jazz, pop or rock is your thing. Make the city of Dresden resound once again in 2025!

Musical Festival

After the overwhelming success of Claudio Monteverdi’s »L’Orfeo« in the spring of 2023 at Dresden‘s Semper Opera, Rolando Villazón, Wolfgang Katschner and the lautten compagney BERLIN have put together another concert program. This revolves around the inner world of a modern person travelling to the center of their own soul – with all the emotional ups and downs that define our human existence.

Villazón — Lautten Compagney Berlin — Katschner

Richard Wagner‘s »Der Ring des Nibelungen« features all kinds of heroes, gods and fabled creatures, creating a fairytale-like cosmos at whose center the fateful ring determines all the protagonists’ fates. The fascinating adventure story, which lasts for 16 hours in the original, and for which  the composer was inspired by myths and legends, has now been adapted for young concertgoers by the multi-award-winning Taschenoper Lübeck (the »Pocket Opera Company« from Lübeck). Apart from a brass quintet from the Festival’s own Dresdner Festspielorchester, a wonderful ensemble of singers takes everyone, regardless of their age, on a fantastical journey of discovery in this enchanting one-hour adaptation.

The Ring For Children

Deutsches Hygiene-Museum

The genesis of the Mozart Requiem, which tragically turned out to be the composer’s own swan song, is cloaked in mystery. The legend begins in 1791 with an unknown »grey messenger« ordering a mass for the dead. Mozart, however, died before completing the work, a task that fell to his student Franz Xaver Süßmayr. Musically, the Requiem marks a culminating point in the composer’s oeuvre. The choral passages stand testament to his highest mastery, challenging choristers with harmonically demanding passages and compelling fugues. The work offers a fulfilling musical experience for all those performing it – and by booking singalong tickets for this concert, you can join the renowned Kreuzchor from Dresden under the baton of its cantor Martin Lehmann in singing this iconic choral work, actively partaking of all its august beauty and dramatic intensity.

Sing With Us! — Mozart Requiem

Playing the organ demands not only virtuosity, but full-body involvement: in addition to the keys, the pedals have to be played with one’s feet. Thomas Ospital, originally from the French Basque Country, has mastered this art like few others. Born in 1990, he has been the titular organist at the great organ of Saint-Eustache in Paris since 2015. He calls artists playing the organ adventurers, since they always have to adjust to new instruments and new spaces – usually with very little time.

Organ Recital Thomas Ospital

Freiberg Cathedral

Ronan Keating’s impressive career in music began in 1994 with Boyzone, one of the most popular pop bands of the 1990s. The Irishman landed six top hits with them as well as 16 top-five singles. In August 1999, his solo hit »When You Say Nothing At All«, from the soundtrack to »Notting Hill«, was his first number-one single, followed by a successful solo album debut in 2000. Further musical milestones include the albums »Ronan Keating – 10 Years Of Hits« (2004), »Bring You Home« (2006) as well as »Time Of My Life« (2016), for which he was also intensely involved in the songwriting process. 

Ronan Keating

Junge Garde

Lars Eidinger is one of the stage actors who could read a technical manual and still cast a spell over an entire auditorium. How much will he enchant the audience, then, on this special evening at the Kulturpalast, when he reads the love poetry of the multi-talented Thomas Brasch, who died in 2001? Delving into the poetic force of Brasch’s language and images, the exceptional actor will be accompanied by George Kranz on percussion, supporting and accentuating the feelings expressed in the texts. The interaction between Eidinger, Kranz and Brasch, three truly extraordinary artists, makes this live performance a profoundly moving experience.

Lars Eidinger & George Kranz

Two violins, a cello, a piano – no, this is not a classical quartet, but Salut Salon. For more than twenty years, the four virtuoso musicians have treated their audiences worldwide to mind-boggling musical capers – from Vivaldi to vocal acrobatics, from tango to »Tatort«, from rap to Rachmaninov. »Salut Salon is a passion that simply needed an outlet«, says the ensemble’s founder Angelika Bachmann. The current program, »Heimat« (Homeland) takes the typical Salut Salon approach to this multi-faceted notion, collecting music the four musicians have encountered on their travels. That includes works by Mozart, Saint-Saëns and Copland, songs from Finland, France, China and Egypt, unknown and famous pieces, their own compositions, and of course, as always: Tango Nuevo by Astor Piazzolla. At the same time, it offers an answer to the self-imposed quest to define homeland: Salut Salon is at home in the world – and its homeland is music!

Salut Salon

Kraftwerk Mitte Dresden

Paganini, then Dvořák: the young American violinist Kevin Zhu, most recently heard at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele with Paganini’s 24 Caprices, »scaling the Mount Everest of violin literature« (thus the publication »Musik in Dresden«), returns this season with Dvořák’s only Violin Concerto, a gem heard far too rarely. Stylistically, it forms part of the so-called Slavic period, in which the Czech composer dedicated himself with particular intensity to the folklore of his homeland. 

Zhu – Prague Philharmonia – Villaume

Max Herre and Joy Denalane are two of the most important and successful German musicians active today. Denalane, the great, overwhelming soul singer, has set standards with ground-breaking albums such as »Mamani«, »Let Yourself Be Loved« and most recently »Willpower«. Max Herre established a whole new narrative tradition and musicality in German Hip-Hop and rap with his band Freundeskreis, its debut album »Quadratur des Kreises« and with his solo albums, such as »Hallo Welt« and »ATHEN«. 25 years after everything began with the song »Mit Dir«, the power couple released their first joint album in 2024. 

Max Herre & Joy Denalane

They are currently the USA’s hippest string quartet export: the Isidore String Quartet. Only three years after its founding, the New York-based ensemble won the 14th Banff Competition, followed by an Avery Fisher Career Grant one year later, catapulting the quartet to the top league of chamber music. The eponymous Isidore is the violinist Isidore Cohen, a former member of the legendary Juilliard String Quartet, in whose spirit the musicians combine tradition and innovation. They consider quartet playing not as an elite artform, but as the medium of an approachable, shared musical experience. In this spirit, they are also protagonists of the project »Music Heals Us«, giving underprivileged people access to classical music. And as if all that weren’t enough, there is the concert program, which combines Mozart’s so-called »Dissonance Quartet« and Dvořák’s Opus 106 with a work by the American jazz musician and composer Billy Childs.

Isidore String Quartet

»When played by David Orlowsky, the clarinet seems transformed into a human being«, the »Hamburger Abendblatt« praised the songful quality of his expressive playing. Now, the virtuoso artist makes a guest appearance at Dresden’s Stromwerk with his new album »Petrichor«, which owes its name to a very special scent: the smell of rain falling on parched ground. Together with Daniel Stelter on guitar and Tommy Baldu on drums, the synesthete Orlowsky invites the audience to a fascinating journey through the world of fragrances, translating them into colorful music. »It is certainly not a coincidence that we speak of fragrance notes, sound colors and color tones. Colors, sounds and scents go far beyond what can be described verbally«, says the clarinetist. The audience may look forward to a sensual evening, inspiring us to perceive the world more consciously, noticing the richness of our lives.

David Orlowsky & Band

The Dutch violinist Janine Jansen is one of the most celebrated artists of her instrument, touching and enrapturing listeners worldwide with her passionate music-making and stupendous technical prowess. Now, the likeable virtuoso finally makes her debut at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele. Her musical partner is the Camerata Salzburg – in a collaboration both sides consider a unique stroke of good fortune.

Janine Jansen & Camerata Salzburg

A fantastic evening dedicated to traditional Chinese music and performance art awaits when the Xi’an Orchestra and vocal soloists bring the characteristic sonic worlds of their homeland to life with unparalleled virtuosity. Xi’an-style drumming is one of the focuses of the concert, a unique artform declared part of the world’s and China’s national cultural heritage. The musicians of the Xi’an Orchestra play such fascinating instruments as glockenspiel and bianqing, a kind of stone xylophone, the Chinese zithers guqin, se and zhazheng, the wind instrument xun and the harp konghou. In a performance that is richly colorful and has its very own sound, the guests from China will take the audience on a journey to the epoch of the Tang dynasty, impressively portrayed through traditional songs, compositions and choreographies.

Xi’an Orchestra of Traditional Chinese Music

Manu Delago is a world-famous percussionist, handpan player and composer. At the interface between ambient electronic and neoclassical music, his acoustic percussion instruments merge with electronic rhythms and sounds from our surroundings. The Tyrolean musician works regularly with various artists, including Björk, Anoushka Shankar or Ólafur Arnalds; as a soloist, he has appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Metropole Orkest. Now the two-time Grammy winner and his handpan join the vocal ensemble Mad About Lemon for a grand European concert tour. 

Manu Delago feat. Mad About Lemon

Festspielhaus Hellerau

A symphony orchestra can tell complete stories. And one of the most important storytellers was doubtlessly Igor Stravinsky. The sounds and rhythms he conjured were scandalous more than 100 years ago; today, they inspire us to imagine cinematic scenes. This is also true of the legend of the firebird with all its sophisticated colors and instruments. Before this eternally fascinating orchestral work, the Dresden Philharmonic interprets Tan Dun’s »Fire Ritual« for violin and orchestra, under the baton of its principal guest conductor Kahchun Wong and with the violinist Josef Špaček as the soloist – the former and, at the time, youngest-ever concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic. The work was composed in 2018, inspired by ceremonial music from the Chinese court. This program, packed with legends and fairytales, begins with the »Dance of the Seven Veils« from the ballet »Salome«, composed in 1948 and reworked in 1987 by the Japanese composer Akira Ifukube, who is most well-known for his compositions for the Kaijū film genre.

Špaček — Dresden Philharmonic — Wong

Nowhere do culture and landscape blend together so wonderfully as during the concert of Dresden’s Kreuzchor at the Bergpalais in the park of the Pillnitz Palace. This serenade on the green on Whitsunday, a beloved Festival tradition, features the members of the Kreuzchor with their cantor Martin Lehmann, performing classical songs, familiar folk melodies and contemporary arrangements. Enjoy the royal ambiance of palace and park as well as the crystal-clear vocal sound of the young singers – hopefully under a bright and cloudless sky!

Serenade on The Green

Schloss Pillnitz

A complete musical cosmology is what Gustav Mahler wanted to create in his Third Symphony: from lifeless matter to plants, animals, humans and angels, all the way to divine love«, thus the radio station BR-Klassik in a review of this composition, which Mahler completed in 1896 after four years of work. Indeed, Mahler’s Third exceeds all boundaries, not only that of duration, lasting between 90 and 100 minutes. It also calls for an enormous orchestra, plus a contralto solo – which the Canadian mezzo-soprano Michèle Losier, who has enjoyed success in Europe and overseas, will sing in this concert – as well as a women’s and a boys’ chorus. 

Staatskapelle Dresden & Daniele Gatti

Due to organizational reasons, the performance of the Verdi Requiem has to be postponed until next year. We will keep you updated with further details. Already purchased tickets will be refunded. Please return them via our customer service.

Verdi Requiem

This lighthearted matinee featuring everything from classical to pop will make the walls at the venerable Semper Oper shake! The exceptional all-round musician Friedrich Gulda, who passed away in 2000, wrote a five-movement Concerto for Cello and Brass Ensemble, which he dedicated to Heinrich Schiff in 1980. It begins in a funky rock tone and ends with an Alpine folk melody. The solo part will be played by Jan Vogler, not only the Intendant of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele and an outstanding cellist, but also a former student of Heinrich Schiff, bringing matters full circle.

 Vogler – Berlin Philharmonic Brass – Handler

The Geneva Camerata presents a unique encounter between the world of Krump – a Hip-Hop dance style originating in the Los Angeles suburbs – and one of the greatest masterworks in music history, Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony. The orchestra musicians become part of the choreography developed by the director and choreographer Kader Attou for this impressive score. Based on the rhythmic intensity of Shostakovich’s Fifth and the virtuosity of the four dancers, the performance stages the body movements of Krump as an expression of self-liberation, symbolizing revolt and the struggle against brutality. The result is a moving total work of art, inviting the viewer to reflect intensively upon various topical social issues such as tolerance, courage and liberty, but from a new perspective.

»revolta«

Unfortunately, the concert Fatma Said & Friends cannot take place and is cancelled without replacement. The Soprano deeply regrets the cancellation and hopes to be able to come to Dresden soon. Already purchased tickets will be refunded and can be returned through our customer service.

Fatma Said & Friends

Violists of the Staatskapelle Berlin one and all, the »Staatsstreicher« – we leave it up to you whether you prefer to translate this pun as »State String Players« or »putschists« – enjoy their occasional forays into other genres. On these excursions, they regularly work with prominent reciters, most of them also moonlighting far from their main professions. Today’s concert focuses on the main work of the (fictitious) author Ernst von Pidde (1877-1966), judge at a district court in his day job. His posthumous book »Richard Wagners ›Ring des Nibelungen‹ im Lichte des deutschen Strafrechts« (Richard Wagner’s Ring of the Nibelung considered under the aspect of German Criminal Law) offers a relentless assessment of Wagner’s tetralogy, which is revealed as a conglomerate of serious crimes. 

Staatsstreicher & Thomas de Maizière

Löwensaal

When it comes to love, the French are considered experts in all its facets – such as jealousy, bliss and roiling passions. The mezzo-soprano Lea Desandre and the lutist Thomas Dunford, two unique musical temperaments, traverse three centuries of French music about the most-discussed issue in the world. Desandre, who was recently named Singer of the Year by »OPUS Klassik«, is a new star on the international opera firmament; her clear and nuanced voice has won her many admirers. With Thomas Dunford, the »Eric Clapton of the lute«, who is also her partner in real life, she forms a musical dream team. Together, they explore the rich emotional landscape of love before the backdrop of the idyllic Palais im Großen Garten – a profoundly emotional evening awaits!

Lea Desandre & Thomas Dunford

Heinrich Heine – the genius poet, freethinker and cultural journalist – spent half his life in the French capital. Censored in his German homeland, the »fatherland of champagne and the Marseillaise« offered him a vibrant refuge from political oppression. In Paris, he threw himself into social life, participating actively in the city’s musical life and meeting innumerable soloists, composers and conductors. With a sharp tongue, he commented on everything around him throughout his life, joining the ranks of the German-language poets most frequently set to music because of his wit and intellect. His poem »Du bist wie eine Blume« alone was set to music 400 times! This wonderful evening of recitation and music walks in Heine’s footsteps, in the high-carat shape of the star baritone Benjamin Appl, the actor Jens Harzer, who currently wears the »Iffland-Ring«, the great actress Barbara Auer and James Baillieu, one of the leading lied pianists.


 Heinrich Heine. Paris. Music

Founded in 1999, the Quatuor Ébène is known for the virtuoso manner in which it straddles styles and genres. For its latest project, the adventurous string quartet has teamed up with two long-time musical friends: the harpist Catriona McKay and the fiddler Chris Stout, both embodying Scottish folk music in its vibrant and multi-faceted contemporary state. The program was developed and inspired by Fair Isle, the smallest, most remote and perhaps most beautiful of the Shetland Islands in Scotland’s high north, where the rugged, rocky landscape has shaped local culture and mentality. Together, the six musicians explore the sonic diversity of Scottish music, clothing existing melodies in new guises due to their typical yet atypical combination of instruments, and enriching it with new compositions of their own – a fascinating musical journey of discovery in which two sound worlds merge in music.

Stout — McKay — Quatuor Ébène

He had a premonition of World War II breaking out imminently. Therefore, Benjamin Britten decided he could no longer stay in England, and left for Canada in 1939. The difficulty of his situation as an outspoken pacifist can be heard in his music as well. Even during the Atlantic crossing, he worked on his Violin Concerto in D-minor, whose solo part will be played at the Kulturpalast by Augustin Hadelich, known for his outstanding technique and the profound emotion and conviction of his interpretations. Shostakovich’s Eighth Symphony also bears the signs of war. Composed in Stalin’s Soviet Union, it was a balancing act for its creator: he did not want to write optimistic music, yet he was not permitted to write tragic music. The resulting work reflects these contradictions. Michael Sanderling – the conductor of the evening and chief conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic from 2011 to 2019 – is considered one of the leading Shostakovich experts of our time, having witnessed during his childhood the close personal friendship of his father with the composer.

Hadelich —  Dresden Philharmonic — Sanderling

Magical moments happen when the Musikfestspiele meets circus arts. First-rate musicians from the classical and jazz fields perform under the roof of the circus tent at the Alaunpark, sparking a unique dialogue with contemporary circus artists. The encounter gives rise to something new, unprecedented, something that can only be experienced once, in these performances. Anything is possible during this blind date: observation, encounters, merging, a dynamic back-and-forth, a dance around an invisible center, or turbulent entanglements. The special magic lies in the moment, the spontaneous confluence of sound and circus arts. The audience, no matter if music lovers or circus fans, may look forward to fascinating discoveries, amazement and enjoyment – leave daily life behind for a moment of utter magic!

Musikfestspiele Meets Circus Arts

Zirkuszelt

In the one-man show »Jedermann Reloaded«, Philipp Hochmair, currently playing Jedermann in Hofmannsthal’s classic at the Salzburg Festival, and also the frontman of the band Die Elektrohand Gottes, which was founded in Dresden, takes on a total of twenty roles. To accomplish this feat, the Austrian actor requires only two microphones – one for his own role, in the stricter sense, and one for the other characters in his monologue. Hochmair’s Everyman is a rock star. Driven by guitar riffs and experimental sounds of his band, the versatile actor transforms Hugo von Hofmannsthal’s 100-year-old mystery play into an apocalyptic spoken concert.

Philipp Hochmair & Die Elektrohand Gottes

Albrechtsburg Meißen

What began in 2023 with a concert performance of »Das Rheingold« and continued in 2024 with »Die Walküre« and now with »Siegfried« is no less than a redefinition of standards in Wagner interpretation. The project »The Wagner Cycles« is dedicated to a unique collaboration between academic expertise and practice, tackling Richard Wagner’s monumental opera tetralogy. In Dresden and on tour through Europe’s musical centers, the results of this spectacular sound workshop and the historically informed perspective on Wagner’s epoch-making theatrical oeuvre have been celebrated as revolutionary. In the third part of the »Ring«, »Siegfried», depictions of nature and the visceral portrayals of action reveal Wagner at the height of his expressive musical powers. As in previous years, the newly-won transparent orchestra sound and the focus on the singers’ treatment of language will ensure novel listening experiences.

Richard Wagner: »Siegfried«

Lucerne Festival

During the era of the Iron Curtain, the orchestral guest appearance of Herbert von Karajan and the Berlin Philharmonic at the very first edition of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele in 1978 was legendary. It was followed by several others after the fall of the Wall, led by the chief conductors of the time.

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Suwanai – NHK Symphony Orchestra - Luisi

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Fang — Vogler — Nhk Symphony Orchestra — Luisi

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Chicago Symphony Orchestra & Jaap Van Zweden

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