The slogan 2023 BLACK AND White May 18 – Juni 18, 2023 Book your Tickets now Order season brochure Subscribe to our newsletter

31

Days

Program & Tickets

1.500

international

Artists

25

outstanding

Venues

Jan Vogler, Intendant of the Dresden Music Festival since 2008

Dear Concertgoers,

I am delighted to present the 46th season programme of the Dresden Music Festival to you. The idea for the motto »BLACKANDWHITE« came to me while reading Leo Tolstoy’s »War and Peace«. The great writer painted a picture of stark contrasts: culture and barbarianism, light and darkness, joy and grief – and of course war and peace.

Greetings from
the Mayor

CONTRASTING SOUNDS AND HARMONY

Why choose «BLACKANDWHITE» as a motto? Is it a reference to traditional orchestra attire? To this year’s focus on the piano? Or a conscious inspiration, countermanding our current world-weariness? What if we all felt invited to dissent, pleading for as many colours in our lives as possible?

Dirk Hilbert, Mayor of the City of Dresden

About the Music Festival

Over the course of it's 40 years history the Dresden Music Festival has established itself as distinctive cultural institution in Dresden and attracts an audience far beyond Germany’s borders between May and June to this city on the River Elbe. During three festival weeks renowned orchestras, top-class soloists and ensembles come to Dresden to perform at the most beautiful venues in its historic center and surroundings and fill the city with music.  

Dresden Festival
Orchestra

Every year, some of the best musicians for historically informed performance practice from the finest early-music ensembles in Europe unite to the Dresden Festival Orchestra as the Dresden Music Festival's very own ensemble. With great joy of discovery, precision and a keen sense for authentic interpretations, the Dresden Festival Orchestra explores the original sound of various epochs and in doing so fills a void in the musical life of the city. The musicians play original instruments, varying with the era and historical background of its repertoire, which means that the strings use gut strings and the winds offer a completely new sound.

Themes of the Dresden Music Festival since 2009