DEAR AUDIENCE,
With joy and pride, we present the new program of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele to you. We have chosen the motto »LOVE« for the 2025 festival, dedicating our events to a topic which has moved and inspired us since human thought began.
The coming season features a particular dense schedule of appearances by world-class orchestras. An audience survey in 2023 revealed that many visitors find the international orchestras one of the festival's most interesting facets. These outstanding orchestras hail from places ranging from Chicago to London and Vienna and all the way to Tokyo. I am looking forward particularly to the residency of the NHK Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Fabio Luisi. It has taken us fifteen years of work to finally present this leading Japanese orchestra in Dresden.
We continue, however, to focus on genre diversity. Whether dance with Sasha Waltz, rap with Max Herre or jazz with Hiromi – many renowned artists will give their festival debut in 2025.
We thank the State Capital City of Dresden, which provides the institutional basis for our festival, the State of Saxony, and all our sponsors, partners and underwriters for their trust and generous support!
I look forward to welcoming you to Dresden during the most beautiful time of the year.
Yours, Jan Vogler Artistic Director
LOVE
Love – a big word, an eternal topic, unleashing prodigious powers of inspiration in music as in all art forms. Innumerable opera plots recount the passions and complications caused by love, and many famous pieces of music owe their unique effect to the particular emotional state of their creators’ hearts.
As a music festival, however, we are also interested in another facet of love: the love of music. It motivates people of every age to concentrate all their senses on learning to play an instrument, every day. It helps us navigate our daily lives, it strengthens us emotionally, consoles and motivates us. Making and listening to music together increases our empathy for our fellow human beings, heightens our sensitivity and unlocks our hearts.
And in these times what could be more important than that? As an alternative to hate, aggression and indifference, love offers an opportunity for our world.
This is our heartfelt invitation to you to discover the many programs inspired by our motto, and to take some of the unique power of love home and into your everyday life.
MUSIC AS AN EXPRESSION OF LOVE, VITALITY AND PASSION
The language of music is borderless, sensual and emotional – as the new season of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele will demonstrate once again. One of the largest classical music festivals in Europe, purposefully and successfully presenting a multitude of genres and formats, it offers a fascinating program in 2025, dedicated to the motto of »LOVE«. The most atmospheric performance venues of our city form the festival’s stages. I would like to thank Jan Vogler, the festival’s Artistic Director, and his team for once again selecting music offering quality and internationality while also setting new accents. Let us look forward to the fascinating, passionate, surprising facets of »LOVE«. Dear guests, I hope you enjoy the weeks of the Musikfestspiele in Dresden: come experience music as an expression of love, vitality and passion!
Dirk Hilbert, Mayor of the State Capital of Dresden