Usedom Music Festival

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Stolpe Castle , a venue for the Usedom Music Festival
Peenemünde power plant , another venue

The Usedomer Music Festival is a music festival with a focus on classical music that has been held annually since 1994 in several venues on the island of Usedom and in the city of Wolgast .

The organizer of the music festival is the Friends of Usedomer Musikfreunde , based in Heringsdorf . In addition to the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , the district of Ostvorpommern , the municipalities of the island and the cities of Usedom and Wolgast, the festival is mainly supported by regional sponsors. The Usedom Music Festival takes place in autumn. The attraction of the musical events in the off-season to domestic and foreign guests has meanwhile become an important factor for the traditional tourism industry on the island. The Usedom Music Festival is based on an idea by the Usedom hotelier Werner Molik. As part of his considerations of organizing an opera festival on the island (to boost tourism in the off-season), he brought the opera singer Reymond Urbanski to Usedom in 1993. The following year both brought Thomas Hummel (cultural manager and not to be confused with the composer and music computer scientist Thomas Hummel) to Usedom for the festival. Molik shaped the development of the festival during his years as chairman of the friends' association until 2006.

The first series of events took place in the summer of 1994 with Kurt Masur as patron . Masur established contact with the “Young Concert Artists International Auditions” foundation, whose award winners have been making guest appearances on Usedom since 1995. The young musicians from the region also receive a platform through cooperation with the music schools in Wolgast and Świnoujście .

The Usedom Music Festival became internationally known in 2002 when Mstislav Rostropovich conducted Benjamin Britten's “ War Requiem ” in the former turbine hall of the Peenemünde power plant , which belonged to the Army Research Institute. Other internationally known artists and orchestras who performed at the festival included Krzysztof Penderecki , Kristjan Järvi , Paavo Järvi , Neeme Järvi , Gidon Kremer and the Kremerata Baltica, the Borodin Quartet, the Esbjörn Svensson Trio (est), Anja Silja , David Geringas , Andrej Hoteev , Christian Lindberg , Bo Skovhus , Peter Jablonski, Jan Garbarek , the Nordic Chamber Orchestra , the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Every year, thematic priorities are set on certain countries in the Baltic Sea region . So far, Latvia , Estonia , Lithuania , Russia , Poland , Finland (2005), Sweden (2006), Norway (2007), Denmark (2008), historic Prussia (2009), Latvia (2010), Lithuania (2011), Russia (2012), Poland (2014) and Finland (2015) musical stations. Additional exhibitions and lectures are offered on each of the topics.

The festival is a member organization of the European Festivals Association .

Venues and venues

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Andrej Hoteev: Official biography
  2. ↑ Press release December 6, 2011

Web links