Dresdner Musikfestspiele Completes its Most Diverse Season Ever with Record Revenues
The current Festival season ends tonight (June 9) with a concert by the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Jakub Hrusa. Under the leadership of its Artistic Director Jan Vogler, the Festival is once again proud to report success: during the past four and a half weeks, approximately 65,000 visitors attended its 60 events. At 93 percent, the rate of occupied seats demonstrates that the audience is highly enthusiastic about the Festival’s expansion of its stylistic scope. With ticket revenues exceeding more than2 million Euros, the 2024 Dresdner Musikfestspiele has just completed its most successful edition ever.
»We took great risks, and we reaped great rewards. The diversity of genres convinced our audience, making 2024 the most successful year in our history,» says Jan Vogler, Artistic Director of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele.
Highlights of this year’s Dresdner Musikfestspiele included the concert performance of Wagner’s »Die Walküre«using historical instruments by the Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln under the baton of Kent Nagano, a brilliant opening concert with the Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam under Klaus Mäkelä, a performance by Hélène Grimaud & Camerata Salzburg and a recital by Igor Levit. Marking halftime of the Festival period, the 17-time Grammy winner Sting began his annual world tour before 4,400 delighted fans at Dresden’s Messe. With the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Festival also featured a first-rate orchestra from Great Britain, bringing the acclaimed Dresden premiere of Anna Clyne’s »Dance«, a concerto for cello and orchestra, to the Kulturpalast, with Jan Vogler as the soloist and Santtu-Matias Rouvali conducting. During the »Night of the Young Stars«, Jan Vogler and Martin Grubinger presented eight rising young musicians from the classical and jazz world – a combination that will most likely never again occur live on stage. Furthermore, performers such as Anoushka Shankar, Jeanine de Bique and Stacey Kent broadened their listeners’ musical horizons.
There will be a brief Festival intermezzo in September: a superlative trio, consisting of the violinist Leonidas Kavakos, cellist Yo-Yo Ma and pianist Emanuel Ex, performs on September 2, 2024 at the Kulturpalast; on September 17, the Vienna Philharmonic and Christian Thielemann return to Dresden (the latter concert is already sold out).
The 48th Dresdner Musikfestspiele takes place from May 17 to June 14, 2025.