The two-time ECHO Jazz Award winner Wolfgang Haffner is without doubt the best-known German drummer, and at the same time one of the few German musicians who are also successful worldwide.

Burning for something or burning up on something, floating on the wings of freedom or hanging unsupported in the air? Everything has its two sides, as do the associations one makes with “fire” and “bird”. In their joint programme “Firebird” percussionist Alexei Gerassimez and jazz pianist Omer Klein move within this field of tension. Inspiration and source material for their own compositions is one of the most complex works in the history of music: Stravinsky's “Firebird” once again stretches out its iridescent wings and plunges like a phoenix from the ashes into a sonic adventure full of lightness and passion directly into chaos and back again.

As if out of nowhere, the trio NES around the Franco-Algerian singer, cellist and songwriter Nesrine songwriter Nesrine astonished the European music world across genre boundaries in 2018. astonishment. In her artful songs in Arabic, French and English, her dazzling artistic personality becomes audible. A musical world without borders, reflected by Nesrine's cello and her powerful voice, with North African roots and a Mediterranean present.

„One of the biggest new music talents in Britain“ (Vogue)

The new album “Eternity” of German star soprano Simone Kermes marks a fresh and daring step in her career, being her first ever self-published album and being released digitally only.
The music is a most intimate take on the essential elements of song: Accompanied only by a single theorbo, her performance emanates pure emotion, delicate sensitivity and a deep sense of existential meaning.
Recorded during Lockdown in spring 2020, this album reflects Simone Kermes’ longing for artistic expression and her existential need for singing and performing. At the same time, it is a declaration of love and dedication to her audience, a message of hope to all the people that she cannot meet in person during these difficult times.

Passion and temperament, creativity and poetry, humour and irony: these are the characteristics that characterise Anna Depenbusch - not only on stage but also backstage. With her last studio album “Das Alphabet der ANNA DEPENBUSCH in schwarz-weiß” (The alphabet of ANNA DEPENBUSCH in black and white), the singer-songwriter from Hamburg showed that it takes no more than a piano and her voice to immerse oneself in a world full of fantasy for a few hours. In this world, stories written about life, anecdotes, truths, dreams, desires and longings merge in a symbiosis. Whether she whispers or whistles, caresses or trembles, jokes playfully or simply touches you deeply: “Anna Depenbusch is the measure of all things in her field, modern chanson” (Hannoversche Allgemeine Zeitung).

An encounter that calls everything into question.
Zeruya Shalev's new novel “Schicksal” masterfully tells of a great love, but also of fate, responsibility and illusions.

“This is one of those rare occasions. The eleven-year-old pianist Alexandra Dovgan can hardly be called a wonder child, for while this is a wonder, it is not child’s play. What one hears is a performance by a grown-up individual and a person. It is a special pleasure for me to commend the art of her remarkable music teacher, Mira Marchenko. Yet there are things that cannot be taught and learned. Alexandra Dovgan’s talent is exceptionally harmonious. Her playing is honest and concentrated. I predict a great future for her…“
Grigory Sokolov

Grigory Sokolov returns to Schloss Elmau –a certainly compelling and impressive concert evening with numerous encores.

Zu Beginn des Jahres 1807 notierte Benjamin Constant in seinem Tagebuch: „Ich werden einen Roman schreiben, der meine Geschichte ist.“ Bereits fünfzehn Tage später ist ein Klassiker geboren: zeitlos durch die erschütternde Authentizität des Selbsterlittenen, doch in seinem Zwang zur Selbstbeobachtung geradezu aktuell.

Wales im Jahr 1921: Der Erste Weltkrieg und die Spanische Grippe haben gewütet, Europa ist am Boden. Der junge Merce Blackboro ist dem Fronteinsatz in der Antarktis entgangen, leidet jedoch seit seiner Rückkehr von Shackletons gescheiterter Endurance-Expedition unter der heimischen Enge. Umso mehr, als Ennid Muldoon, die Liebe seines Lebens, eines Tages fluchtartig verschwindet, um ihr Glück in Amerika zu suchen. Mit ihr auf demselben Auswandererschiff reist inmitten der Elenden Europas der Tycoon und Trinker Diver Robey, der von einer Flugverbindung zwischen der alten und der neuen Welt träumt. Als der Dampfer in einen gewaltigen Schneesturm gerät und manövrierunfähig auf offener See treibt, scheinen sich die Hoffnungen aller – ob arm oder reich – zu zerschlagen. Merce muss einen Weg finden, Ennid und damit sich selbst zu retten.

Levickis' virtuosity and versatility in classical and contemporary repertoire changes the way we perceive the instrument. He was the first accordionist to be signed to Universal Music Decca Classic, and his debut album climbed straight to the top of the official classic album charts in the UK. Now it's well on the way to winning over audiences in Germany as well.

Guest appearance. With the kind permission of the Residenztheater.

What is the secret of good style, how does language become literature? Michael Maar explores this question in his main and life's work, for which he spent forty years reading. What is manner, what is jargon, and what are the pitfalls that almost everyone falls into? How must the elementary particles interact for the perfect prose sentence? Maar shows who can do dialogue and who can't, why Hölderlin is overrated and Rahel Varnhagen underrated, why without the Austrian Jews a continent of style would disappear, why Kafka is an alien and why only Heimito von Doderer comes close to Thomas Mann. In fifty portraits, from Goethe to Gernhardt, from Kleist to Kronauer, he unfolds en passant a history of German literature.

The Canadian bass baritone Gerald Finley and the British pianist Julius Drake are among the best that can currently be heard in both Lied. In Schloss Elmau the two can now be heard with Schubert's Schwanengesang , a must for all „Lied“-aficionados!

Annett Lousian, probably the most charming voice of Germany is back in Schloss Elmau with her new album "Kleine große Liebe" - full of catchy lyrics and a fresh, modern sound.

Dmitrij Kapitelman can speak Saxon better than the official to whom he applies for a German passport. After 25 years as a compatriot, most of his life. But no formality is too small for the bureaucracy when it comes to immigrants. Ms Kunze demands an apostille from Kiev. So he travels to the city of his birth, with which nothing connects him except childhood memories. These memories are beautiful, for they contain loving, unfailing parents. And difficult, because at present the family is divided. Until fate brings them together again in Kiev.

The duo Runge & Ammon was born out of a shared passion for chamber music crossovers around jazz, tango, rock, theatre and film music.Their programme “RollOverBeethoven” juxtaposes music for cello and piano by Beethoven with the revolutionary avant-garde icons of rock-pop history.

Dieter Kosslick has experienced a lot as head of the Berlinale: whether he had to bring a major construction site to a standstill so that the Rolling Stones could sleep or persuaded Clint Eastwood to come to Berlin. But more important to him than stars and glamour was always the claim to show films that hold up a mirror to society in order to change it with the power of art. His mottos shortly after the turn of the millennium were “Accept Diversity” and “Towards Tolerance”. The Berlinale underwent sustainable and climate-friendly changes, becoming the world's first CO2-certified film festival, and a commitment to justice and human dignity shaped the festival's character.
But with Corona, cinema has also been plunged into a severe crisis that has become existential with the rise of streaming services. In this personal and anecdote-rich book, Dieter Kosslick tells us what we owe to cinema and why we must save it.

Die 70er-Jahre. Eine Vorstadt. Das Westdeutschland der letzten Baulücken, der verstockten Altnazis, der gepflegten Gärten. Die Kriegsgräuel sind beiseitegeschoben, zum Essen geht es in den Balkan Grill, die Einbauküche daheim überzeugt durch optimale Raumnutzung. Für den 10-jährigen Jungen aber ist es eine Welt der Magie, der geheimen Kräfte, des Kampfs des Bösen gegen das Gute. Der Leitstern des Jungen in diesem Kampf ist die große Schwester – das Kind Nr. 1 der Familie. Sie ist herzkrank und sehr lebenshungrig. Mit trockenem Humor und großer Aufsässigkeit stemmt sie sich gegen alle Bedrohungen, nicht zuletzt mithilfe der vergötterten Band Pink Floyd aus dem fernen London, den Kämpfern gegen das Establishment, deren Songs alles zum Glänzen bringen.

Super-class summit meeting "made in Schloss Elmau": Jazz pianist and composer Brad Mehldau and tenor Ian Bostridge met a few years ago in Schloss Elmau. They both wanted to work together, and so Brad Mehldau composed a classical song cycle for Ian Bostridge, which has celebrated its world premiere in Schloss Elmau before the duo embarked on a concert tour through the great concert halls including the Elbphilharmonie.

Please note: due to the adult nature of some Lied texts (inc. Brecht), this concert is not recommended for children and teenagers.