Dresden Music Festival 2026 with classical music, jazz, comedy and a whole lot of lightness
The Dresden Music Festival will bring optimism to concert halls in 2026. Director Jan Vogler has given the 49th festival year from May 14 to June 14, 2026 the motto "Lightness of Being" - and is expanding the festival's genre spectrum this time to include drama and comedy. The opening will already be full of humor when the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Tabita Berglund meets comedian Olaf Schubert. The audience can also look forward to the third edition of "Cellomania" with around 30 star cellists from all over the world as well as the residency of the London Philharmonic Orchestra under Edward Gardner with a focus on compositions by Edward Elgar in Dresden. With Richard Wagner's "Götterdämmerung" in historical performance practice, the Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln under the direction of Kent Nagano will present the conclusion of "The Wagner Cycles", which have become synonymous with a new Wagner sound from Dresden since 2023.
The "lightness of being" runs like a common thread through the 64 events, which include jazz, world music, crossover, dance, drama, readings and performances alongside classical music and opera. Almost 30 artists and ensembles will make their debut at the Dresden Music Festival in 2026, including Austrian actor Tobias Moretti, the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, Joja Wendt & Bastian Pastewka and pianist and YouTube star Hayato Sumino aka "Cateen". There will be a reunion with pianists Chilly Gonzales, Igor Levit, Martha Argerich, actress Martina Gedeck, singer Noa, trumpeter Till Brönner and horn player Sarah Willis, who will be bringing TheSarahbanda to Dresden for the first time. As part of Cellomania, Kian Soltani brings great film music to life on the cello, while Alisa Weilerstein takes Johann Sebastian Bach's suites for cello to new dimensions with "Fragments" in a dialog with commissioned compositions by contemporary composers. A highlight alongside the Long Night of the Cello is the Late Night Baroque, in which five cellists and musicians from the Dresden Festival Orchestra present the sound of Vivaldi's cello concertos first on steel and then on gut strings. The final concert promises a humorous reunion with Hollywood legend Bill Murray, who, together with Jan Vogler, Mira Wang and Vanessa Perez, will lend timeless lightness to literary classics with music by Bach, Bernstein, Gershwin and Piazzolla.
The events take place at various locations in and around Dresden. You can find detailed information at: https: //www.musikfestspiele.com/de/programm.
The "lightness of being" runs like a common thread through the 64 events, which include jazz, world music, crossover, dance, drama, readings and performances alongside classical music and opera. Almost 30 artists and ensembles will make their debut at the Dresden Music Festival in 2026, including Austrian actor Tobias Moretti, the Rotterdams Philharmonisch Orkest, Joja Wendt & Bastian Pastewka and pianist and YouTube star Hayato Sumino aka "Cateen". There will be a reunion with pianists Chilly Gonzales, Igor Levit, Martha Argerich, actress Martina Gedeck, singer Noa, trumpeter Till Brönner and horn player Sarah Willis, who will be bringing TheSarahbanda to Dresden for the first time. As part of Cellomania, Kian Soltani brings great film music to life on the cello, while Alisa Weilerstein takes Johann Sebastian Bach's suites for cello to new dimensions with "Fragments" in a dialog with commissioned compositions by contemporary composers. A highlight alongside the Long Night of the Cello is the Late Night Baroque, in which five cellists and musicians from the Dresden Festival Orchestra present the sound of Vivaldi's cello concertos first on steel and then on gut strings. The final concert promises a humorous reunion with Hollywood legend Bill Murray, who, together with Jan Vogler, Mira Wang and Vanessa Perez, will lend timeless lightness to literary classics with music by Bach, Bernstein, Gershwin and Piazzolla.
The events take place at various locations in and around Dresden. You can find detailed information at: https: //www.musikfestspiele.com/de/programm.
