The Kissinger Sommer is a classical music festival held every year in the summer in the city of

Bad Kissingen Bad Kissingen () is a German spa town in the Bavarian region of Lower Franconia and County town, seat of the Bad Kissingen (district), district Bad Kissingen. Situated to the south of the Rhön Mountains on the Franconian Saale, Franconia ...

in Bavaria, Southern Germany.

History

The festival was founded in 1986. At the beginning the focus of the festival was on the improvement of the cultural relations between eastern and western Europe. Every year an east-european country was partner of the festival, beginning with Hungary in 1986. Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union followed. So the festival became a place where one could see artists from east and west, especially of the partner-countries and of East-Germany. Among the artists of the first years were

Dmitry Sitkovetsky Dmitry Yulianovich Sitkovetsky (; born September 27, 1954) is a Soviet and American violinist, conductor, and arranger. Early life Dmitry Sitkovetsky was born in Baku, Azerbaijan, to violinist Julian Sitkovetsky and pianist Bella Davidovich. ...

, Boris Pergamenschikow and Svjatoslav Richter. After the fall of the iron curtain the festival turned to a world-wide view with partner-countries in whole Europe, North America and China. Every summer around 50 concerts are attracting about 30 000 visitors. The occurring interpreters are a mixture of well-known international stars like

Cecilia Bartoli Cecilia Bartoli Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, OMRI (; born 4 June 1966) is an Italian mezzo-soprano widely known in the music of Vincenzo Bellini, Bellini, George Frideric Handel, Handel, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart, Gioachino Ross ...

Arcadi Volodos Arcadi Arcadievich Volodos (born 24 February 1972) is a Russian-born French pianist. One of the world's most acclaimed pianists, he has won such awards as the Echo Klassik, Gramophone Award, Diapason d'Or, and Edison Award for his discography. ...

Fazıl Say Fazıl Say (; born 14 January 1970) is a Turkish pianist and composer who has worked internationally. Life and career Say was born in Ankara in 1970. His father, Ahmet Say, was an author and musicologist. His mother, Gürgün Say, was a pharm ...

Grigory Sokolov Grigory Lipmanovich Sokolov (; born 18 April 1950) is a Russian pianist with Spain, Spanish citizenship. He is among the most esteemed of living pianists, his repertoire spanning composers from the Baroque music, Baroque period such as Johann Seba ...

, and newcomers, who often later have made a great career too, like

Lang Lang Lang Lang (; born 14 June 1982) is a Chinese pianist who has performed with major orchestras around the world and appeared at many leading concert halls. Active since the 1990s, he was the first Chinese pianist to be engaged by the Berlin Phi ...

Diana Damrau Diana Damrau (; born 31 May 1971) is a German soprano who has achieved international fame for her performances, primarily in opera, but also in concert and lieder. She has been successful in coloratura soprano roles since her early career, and gr ...

David Garrett David Garrett Christian Bongartz (born 4 September 1980), known by his stage name David Garrett, is a German classical and crossover violinist and recording artist. Early life When Garrett was four years old his father purchased a violin f ...

. Director of the "Kissinger Sommer" from 1986 until 2016 was Kari Kahl-Wolfsjäger. Her successor, beginning in 2017, was Tilman Schlömp, formerly artistic director at the festival

Beethovenfest The Beethovenfest ('Beethoven Festival') is a festival of classical music in Bonn, Germany, dedicated mostly to the music of Ludwig van Beethoven who was born there. It dates back to 1845, when the composer's 75th anniversary of birth was celebra ...

in Bonn. He changed the concept of the festival. Instead of partner countries, there are now main topics, starting in 2017 with the motto "1830 – Romantic Revolution" and followed in 2018 by "1918 – emergence of the modern age". The contract of Schlömp ended in 2021. Alexander Steinbeis, previously orchestra director of the

DSO Berlin The Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin (DSO) is a German broadcast orchestra based in Berlin. The orchestra performs its concerts principally in the Philharmonie Berlin. The orchestra is administratively based at the ''Rundfunk Berlin-Branden ...

, was appointed as his successor from 2022 on. In 2020 the festival was cancelled because of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

Contemporary music

From the beginning the festival is also a place for contemporary composers like

Alfred Schnittke Alfred Garrievich Schnittke (24 November 1934 – 3 August 1998) was a Russian composer. Among the most performed and recorded composers of late 20th-century classical music, he is described by musicologist Ivan Moody (composer), Ivan Moody as a ...

Sofia Gubaidulina Sofia Asgatovna Gubaidulina (24 October 1931 – 13 March 2025) was a Soviet and Russian composer of Modernism (music), modernist Holy minimalism, sacred music. She was highly prolific, producing numerous Chamber music, chamber, Orchestra, orch ...

Edison Denisov Edison Vasilievich Denisov (, 6 April 1929 – 24 November 1996) was a Russian composer in the so-called " Underground", "alternative" or "nonconformist" division of Soviet music. Biography Denisov was born in Tomsk, Siberia. He studied math ...

Aribert Reimann Aribert Reimann (, 4 March 1936 – 13 March 2024) was a German composer, pianist, and accompanist, known especially for his literary operas. His version of Shakespeare's ''King Lear'', the opera '' Lear'', was written at the suggestion of Dietr ...

Wolfgang Rihm Wolfgang Rihm (; 13 March 1952 – 27 July 2024) was a German composer of contemporary classical music and an academic teacher based in Karlsruhe. He was an influential post-war European composer, as "one of the most original and independent mus ...

. There have been world premieres of composers like

Jean Françaix Jean René Désiré Françaix (pronunciation Fran-say or Fran-seks) was born on 23 May 1912, in Le Mans and died in 25 September 1997, in Paris). Françaix was a French neoclassical composer, pianist, and orchestrator known for his prolific outp ...

(Dixtuor, in 1987),

Krzysztof Penderecki Krzysztof Eugeniusz Penderecki (; 23 November 1933 – 29 March 2020) was a Polish composer and conductor. His best-known works include '' Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima'', Symphony No. 3, his '' St Luke Passion'', '' Polish Requiem'', '' ...

(Sinfonietta No. 2 for clarinet and string orchestra, in 1994) and Fazıl Say (Sonata for clarinet and piano, op. 42, in 2012). Since 2006 composers present themselves and premieres of their music in the workshop ''Bad Kissinger Liederwerkstatt''. Up to 2018, around 80 world premieres have already been produced as part of the Liederwerkstatt. However, there are also world premieres outside the Liederwerkstatt, such as the ''Concerto No. 1 for violin and orchestra'' by

Gediminas Gelgotas Gediminas Gelgotas (born 12 June 1986 in Vilnius) is a Lithuanian composer, conductor and self-performing artist. Gelgotas' music is known to captivate younger and new audiences of classical music. The composer made his most recent internation ...

in 2018 and in 2019 a new version of the opera "Orfeo ed Euridice" by .

Artists in residence

Artists-in-residence Artist-in-residence (also Writer-in-residence), or artist residencies, encompass a wide spectrum of artistic programs that involve a collaboration between artists and hosting organisations, institutions, or communities. They are programs that pr ...

have been in the last years: * 2014

Ning Feng Ning Feng (宁峰, born 1982) is a Chinese violinist. He was born in Chengdu, China, and is based in Berlin. Career Ning Feng started playing the violin at a very young age and shortly after his fourth birthday he began lessons with Hu Weimin, ...

and

Igor Levit Igor Levit (; born 10 March 1987) is a Russian-German pianist who focuses on the works of Bach, Beethoven, and Liszt. He is also a professor at the Musikhochschule Hannover. He lives in Berlin. Biography Born in Gorky (now Nizhny Novgorod) to ...

* 2015 Igor Levit * 2016

Daniil Trifonov Daniil Olegovich Trifonov (; born 5 March 1991) is a Russian pianist and composer. Described by ''The Globe and Mail'' as "arguably today's leading classical virtuoso" and by ''The Times'' as "without question the most astounding pianist of our ...

* 2017

Patricia Kopatchinskaja Patricia Kopatchinskaja (born March 1977) is a Moldovan-Austrian-Swiss violinist. Biography Early life Kopatchinskaja was born in Chișinău, in the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (now Moldova). She comes from a family of musicians. H ...

and

Vesselina Kasarova Vesselina Kasarova (; born 18 July 1965) is a Bulgarian operatic mezzo-soprano. Early life and education Kasarova was born in the central Bulgarian town of Stara Zagora. Under the communist regime she studied Russian as a second language and had ...

* 2018

Sol Gabetta Sol Gabetta (born 18 April 1981) is an Argentine cellist. The daughter of Andrés Gabetta and Irène Timacheff-Gabetta, she has French and Russian ancestry. Her brother Andrés is a baroque violinist. Career Gabetta began to learn violin at t ...

* 2019

Julia Lezhneva Julia Mikhaylovna Lezhneva (; born 5 December 1989) is a Russian soprano opera singer and recitalist, specializing in soprano and coloratura mezzo-soprano material of the 18th and early 19th century. She studied with Tamara Cherkasova, Irina Zhu ...

* 2020

Jean-Yves Thibaudet Jean-Yves Thibaudet (born 7 September 1961)Michael & Joyce Kennedy, 2007. is a French pianist. Early life and education Thibaudet was born in Lyon, France, to non-professional musical parents. His father played the violin, and his mother, of Ger ...

(planned, festival cancelled)

Orchestra in residence

* 2017–2021

Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen The Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (''unofficial English translation'': Bremen German Chamber Philharmonic) is a chamber orchestra based in Bremen (Germany), with place of residence in the historical building Stadtwaage. History A group of ...

Luitpold Prize

Every year since 1999 the ''Luitpoldpreis'' (Luitpold Prize) is awarded to a young interpreter of the festival. The prize is named after

Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria Luitpold Karl Joseph Wilhelm Ludwig, Prince Regent of Bavaria (12 March 1821 – 12 December 1912), was the ''de facto'' ruler of Kingdom of Bavaria, Bavaria from 1886 to 1912, as regent for his nephews, Ludwig II of Bavaria, King Ludwig II and O ...

, who let build the great Bad Kissingen concert hall '' Regentenbau'', where many of the concerts of the festival take place. The winners are: *1999 –

Nikolaj Znaider Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider (born 5 July 1975 in Copenhagen, Denmark) is a Danish violinist and conductor. Biography Szeps-Znaider was born in Copenhagen to Polish-Jewish parents. His father had originally emigrated from Poland to Israel, and his mo ...

, violin *2000 –

Alisa Weilerstein Alisa Weilerstein (born April 14, 1982) is an American classical cellist. She was named a 2011 MacArthur Fellow. Life and career Weilerstein was born in Rochester, New York. to a secular Jewish family. She started playing the cello at age four. ...

, cello *2001 –

Jochen Kupfer Jochen Kupfer (born 1969 in Grimma) is a German operatic baritone. Early life and education Kupfer received regular singing lessons from the age of 10, and studied singing with Helga Forner at the Musikhochschule Leipzig. He attended master clas ...

, baritone *2002 – , soprano *2003 –

Baiba Skride Baiba Skride (born 19 February 1981) is a Latvian classical violinist. She was the winner of the Queen Elisabeth Violin Contest in 2001. Background and studies Baiba Skride comes from a very musical Latvian family: her love of music comes from h ...

, violin *2004 –

Jan Kobow Jan Kobow (born 1966) is a German classical tenor in concert, Lied, and Baroque opera. Professional career Jan Kobow was born and raised in Berlin. He was a singer and soloist of the ''Staats- und Domchor, Berlin'' with Christian Grube. He studi ...

, tenor *2005 –

Mojca Erdmann Mojca Erdmann (born 29 December 1975) is a German soprano who is particularly associated with the List of operas by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Mozart operas. She created the role of Ariadne in Rihm's ''Dionysos (opera), Dionysos'' at the Salzburg F ...

, soprano *2006 –

Peter Ovtcharov Peter Ovtcharov (; born 31 December 1981 in Leningrad) is a Russian classical pianist and composer currently residing in Seoul, South Korea. He studied at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg with German teacher Karl-Heinz Kämmerling and won sev ...

, piano *2007 –

Tine Thing Helseth Tine Thing Helseth ( ; born 18 August 1987) is a Norwegian trumpet soloist specializing in classical repertoire. Career Helseth was born in Oslo. She started to play trumpet at the age of 7 in a school band and studied at the Barratt Due Ins ...

, trumpet *2008 – David Lomeli, tenor *2009 –

, piano *2010 – Kejia Xiong, tenor *2011 – Anna Lucia Richter, soprano *2012 –

Dmitry Korchak Dmitry (); Church Slavic form: Dimitry or Dimitri (); ancient Russian forms: D'mitriy or Dmitr ( or ) is a male given name common in Orthodox Christian culture, the Russian version of Demetrios (, ). The meaning of the name is "devoted to, dedi ...

, tenor *2013 – Julia Novikova, soprano *2013 –

Konstantin Shamray Konstantin Shamray (born 27 May 1985, Novosibirsk, Soviet Union) is a Russian pianist. Shamray was born in Novosibirsk and began musical-schooling at the age of six in the Kemerovo Music School with Natalia Knobloch. From 1996 he continued his s ...

, piano *2014 – Kian Soltani, cello *2015 – Sung Min Song, tenor *2016 –

Andrei Ioniță Andrei Ionuț Ioniță (born 1 January 1994 in Bucharest) is a Romanian cellist. He won first prize in the cello division of the 2015 International Tchaikovsky Competition. Ioniță began studying piano when he was five years old and started ce ...

, cello *2017 –

Julian Trevelyan Julian Otto Trevelyan (20 February 1910 – 12 July 1988) was an English artist and poet. Early life Trevelyan was the only child to survive to adulthood of Robert Calverley Trevelyan and his wife Elizabeth van der Hoeven. His grandfather wa ...

, piano *2018 – , soprano *2019 – , tenor *2020 – not awarded (festival cancelled) *2021 – Sarah Aristidou, soprano *2022 –

Lucas & Arthur Jussen Lucas (left) and Arthur Jussen (right) in 2019, 260px Lucas Jussen (born 27 February 1993) and Arthur Jussen (born 28 September 1996) are a Dutch piano duo. They are brothers who have been performing in public since early childhood, often togeth ...

, piano *2023 – María Dueñas, violin *2024 –

Timothy Ridout Timothy Ridout (born 1995) is a British violist and 1st Prizewinner of the prestigious Lionel Tertis International Viola Competition. He has performed worldwide as both a soloist and chamber musician. Biography Ridout began his viola studies i ...

, viola

Kissinger Klavierolymp

The festival is connected to the ''Kissinger Klavierolymp'' (''Kissinger Piano Olympics''), a competition of young pianists which takes place in autumn in Bad Kissingen since 2003. The prize for the winners is a performance at the ''Kissinger Sommer''. Among them are

Martin Helmchen Martin Helmchen (born 1982) is a German pianist. He has played with international orchestras and has recorded discs of many classical composers. Life Helmchen was born in Berlin. He began his piano studies at the age of six, and graduated from ...

Nikolai Tokarev Nikolay Petrovich Tokarev (; born 20 December 1950) is a Russian businessman and business oligarch, oligarch. He is the president of the Russian pipeline company Transneft. Early life and KGB In 1973, Tokarev graduated from :ru:Караганд� ...

Kirill Gerstein Kirill Gerstein () (born 23 October 1979) is a Russian-American concert pianist. He is the sixth recipient of the Gilmore Artist Award. Born in the former Soviet Union, Gerstein is an American citizen based in Berlin. Between 2007-2017, he led p ...

Alice Sara Ott is a German-Japanese pianist. Early life and education Ott was born in Munich, Germany, in 1988. Her Japanese mother had studied piano in Tokyo; her father was a German civil engineer. She says she realised as a child that "music was the langu ...

and

Kit Armstrong Kit Armstrong ( zh, c=周善祥, p=Zhōu Shànxiáng, born March 5, 1992) is an American classical pianist, composer, organist, and former child prodigy of British-Taiwanese parentage. Education Armstrong was born in Los Angeles into a non-mu ...

. Among the last winners are Elisabeth Brauß (2016), Emre Yavuz (2017) and Juan Pérez Floristán (2018). Juan Pérez Floristán gewinnt Kissinger KlavierOlymp
, Main-Post 9 October 2018

Recipients

References

External links

Homepage "Kissinger Sommer"Opening concert 2017
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen {{Authority control Music festivals established in 1986 Classical music festivals in Germany Franconian culture Summer festivals Bad Kissingen Tourist attractions in Bavaria 1986 establishments in West Germany