He is a student of Alfred Brendel and comes from the Swiss Ticino: Francesco Piemontesi is considered one of the most outstanding pianists of our time. Characteristic of his playing are technical perfection, a wide and rich palette of colors, as well as the sophistication of expression.

The extraordinary duo of mandolin and guitar with outstanding ambassadors of their instruments: Israeli-born mandolinist Avi Avital alongside “classical music's guitar hero” (BBC Music Magazine) Miloš Karadaglic.

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!

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.

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.

Dieses Buch des renommierten deutsch-israelischen Historikers erzählt die Anatomie des Zweiten Weltkrieges aus einer ungewohnten Perspektive: Im Zentrum des Geschehens steht das jüdische Palästina, gelegen am Schnittpunkt der europäisch-kontinentalen und außereuropäisch-kolonialen Wahrnehmung. Die Kernzeit dieser raumgeschichtlich angelegten Erzählung liegt zwischen dem Abessinien-Krieg 1935 und den Schlachten von El Alamein und Stalingrad 1942. Die Verschränkung zweier, für sich jeweils anderer Kriege – dem Zweiten Weltkrieg und dem Kampf um Palästina – konstruiert das eigentliche Drama der Erzählung und durchzieht als roter Faden das Buch. Es entsteht ein dichtes Gewebe von Ereignisfacetten, das im global geschilderten Großereignis des Zweiten Weltkrieges durch eine besondere Sicht bislang wenig beachtete Konturen hervortreten lässt.

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.

Als Nachfolgeformation der legendären „Biermösl Blosn“ gründete Karli Well mit seinen Brüdern Stofferl und Michael im Jahr 2012 die „Well-Brüder aus’m Biermoos“. In bayerischer Mundart und mit pointierten satirischen Texten nehmen die Multiinstrumentalisten das politische Geschehen Bayerns und derrestlichen Welt aufs Korn. Auch der jüngeren Generation der Musikerfamilie Well wurde das Talent, die Bühnenlust und der Humor mitgegeben. Als „nouWell cousines“ haben sie jedoch ihren eigenen Stil enwickelt – genreübergreifend, weltoffen und regional verwurzelt. Als musikalische Leiterin der BR Musik-Talkshow „Z’am Rocken“ (Bayerischer Rundfunk) sowie des renommierten „Musikantentreff im Hofbräuhaus“ bringt die Harfenistin Franziska Eimer regelmäßig bayerische Musiker mit Musikern aus verschiedenen Kulturen und Stilen zusammen. Mit den Musikern der nouWell cousines und den Well-Brüdern steht die Harfenistin schon seit vielen Jahren auf der Bühne.

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 “Beethoven – Revolutonary Icons” juxtaposes music for cello and piano by Beethoven with the revolutionary avant-garde icons of rock-pop history like Lennon/McCartney, Jimi Hendrix, Frank Zappa, or Chick Corea.

“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.

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.

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.

More than the Bible, Dante's Divine Comedy has shaped our idea of hell and paradise. How could a work in Italian from the 14th century, which even contemporaries could only decipher with the help of commentaries, become a global cultural treasure? Romance scholar Franziska Meier follows the intricate history of this millennium book, whose fame is matched only by Homer's Odyssey and Shakespeare's dramas.

The Polish author Olga Tokarczuk was honoured "for a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life."

“It's like driving two BMWs at the same time,” enthused the conductor Michael Schønwandt after a concert with Lucas and Arthur Jussen. Since their earliest childhood, the two Dutch brothers have sat together at the piano, performed before their Queen Beatrix, won prizes at competitions and received lessons from Maria João Pires and Menahem Pressler. The two acclaimed Wunderkinder have long since developed into an internationally sought-after piano duo that has conquered concert halls all over the world and brought a breath of fresh air to the classical music scene.

Jeder Mensch ist zunächst einmal ein Einzelner. Das kann zur Belastung werden, vor der ein Leben in Gemeinschaft schützt, das kann aber auch den Ehrgeiz wecken, die eigene Individualität zu kultivieren. Zwischen beiden Polen unserer Existenz hat es immer wieder eindrucksvolle Versuche gegeben, einzeln zu sein. Davon erzählt Rüdiger Safranski in seinem neuen Buch. Er beginnt bei Michel de Montaigne und führt über Rousseau, Diderot, Kierkegaard, Stirner und Thoreau bis zur existentialistischen Philosophie des 20. Jahrhunderts. Dabei nähert er sich aus immer anderen Richtungen der Frage, wie weit wir es ertragen, Einzelne zu sein – eine Frage, die sich ganz überraschend in unser alltägliches Leben gedrängt hat.

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.

London-born Ola Onabule was described by Jazzwise Magazine as one of the best British soul singers with a “killer voice and three octaves”. His charged live performances, which bring every concert visitor up from their seat, regularly take him to the most renowned festivals, concert halls and jazz clubs around the world.

Henrike Hahn and Jonathan Hutter approach the personalities of Sophie Scholl and Fritz Hartnagel together with the musician Rahel Hutter. The three actors take the audience back to the time of World War II and bring this unusual and moving love story to the stage.
They show two young personalities who struggle for their views and convictions, endure opposition and do not give up searching for the truth. Sophie Scholl, as a member of the White Rose resistance group, will pay for her fight against the Nazi regime of injustice with death.

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.

The King's Singers are the kings of a cappella and world-famous British export stars in terms of highest musical quality and best English charm, taking the audience by storm.

Axel Hacke's readings are as funny as they are whimsical, as spontaneous as they are carefully planned. And because he has written countless stories in decades as an author and columnist (including a whole book about Christmas), there are plenty of anecdotes, columns, stories for a humorous and profound afternoon, including a short textual review of a very special, crazy year.

Debut at the age of 12, scholarship holder of the Studienstiftung des deutschen Volkes, master class with almost all great pianists and multiple prize winner - Amadeus Wiesensee is without doubt one of the most talented pianists of the new generation. For his recital, he dares to tackle one of the great works of piano literature: Bach's Goldberg Variations.

The authors of “Der Vater” and “East West Street” (“Rückkehr Nach Lemberg”) discuss their friendship and family stories, the long arc of history that connects them to Hans Frank, hanged at Nuremberg seventy-five years ago for “crimes against humanity”.