The “LOVE” of music knows no borders: The Dresden Music Festival sets an example for understanding with 61 concerts in 2025
Whether Scottish folk music or top orchestras from the USA, Asia and Europe, from the love poem reading with Lars Eidinger to the open air with pop singer Ronan Keating to the concert performance of Richard Wagner's “Siegfried” in a historical reading with the Dresdner Festivalorchester and Concerto Köln under the baton of Kent Nagano - there are no limits to the love of music in the 61 concerts at 24 atmospheric venues in Dresden and the surrounding area.
The festival will be preceded by the “Concert for Peace”, in which musicians from the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra will perform together under the direction of Lahav Shani in the Kreuzkirche on May 9, 2025. Other highlights include the two guest performances by the NHK Symphony Orchestra under Fabio Luisi at the festival opening, the reunion with fado singer Mariza and the festival debut of violinist Janine Jansen & Camerata Salzburg.
“We focus on love as a response to hatred, violence and indifference. Join us in discovering messages in music that can be an aid to life,” says Jan Vogler, Director of the Dresden Music Festival.
Festival audiences can look forward to orchestral fireworks in 2025: the Chicago Symphony Orchestra will return to the Elbe for a guest performance under the direction of Jaap van Zweden. With the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the London Symphony Orchestra and Prague Philharmonia, the music festival will bring the full diversity of the European musical tradition to Dresden - and the Xi'an Orchestra of Traditional Chinese Music will provide an exciting contrast with traditional sounds from Asia. Choreographer icon Sasha Waltz and “Revolta” pay tribute to their love of dance. In the field of jazz and pop, two multi-faceted artists of the next generation take to the stage: Japanese pianist Hiromi and jazz singer and composer Alma Naidu.
In contrast, there will be a variety of formats for everyone in the coming year, such as the traditional “Dresden sings & makes music”, the “Sounding City” or a sing-along concert by the Dresden Kreuzchor, which will feature the “Mozart Requiem”. The Dresdner Festspielorchester invites you to a concert for everyone with the Verdi Requiem. The Dresdner Musikfestspiele's first encounter with contemporary circus theater in the tent on the banks of the Elbe in collaboration with the Societaetstheater Dresden will be a premiere.
“The Dresden Musikfestspiele is an important part of Dresden's cultural and musical landscape. In 2025, the festival will once again be a platform for international musical exchange with a diverse program mix,” says Annekatrin Klepsch, Mayor of Culture and Tourism.
“We value the professionalism and versatility of the Dresden Music Festival. The program composition and its exciting variety of genres attract a broad audience and guarantee musical enjoyment in many different facets. This year's program preview promises a special density of world-class orchestras. This will attract a large number of international visitors to Dresden, both the audience and the guest artists. This is a good opportunity to present Dresden and the region as a hospitable, culturally minded and cosmopolitan destination,” says Henrik Oliver von Oehsen, corporate spokesman for Ostsächsische Sparkasse Dresden.
Ticket sales for the 48th Dresden Music Festival start on November 27, 2024.