From classical music and Frank Sinatra's greatest hits to film music from Star Wars and Jurassic Park: the Robert Schumann Philharmonic Orchestra wants to delight music fans of all kinds in 2025 with a summer concert series against an impressive backdrop. "The open-air concerts on Theaterplatz are more varied than they can be experienced in any other German city," announced designated General Music Director Benjamin Reiners. The whole range from serious symphonic music to cross-over projects with contemporary pop musicians will be on offer. The venue will be Theaterplatz with its historic backdrop of the King Albert Museum, Opera House and St. Peter's Church.
Musical appeal to peace and European values
The opening event on June 5 is entitled "To Hope" - an appeal to peace and European values, according to Reiners. This will be accompanied by Beethoven's 9th Symphony as well as "Da pacem Domine" by Arvo Pärt and Gustav Holst's "Venus, the Messenger of Peace". Also planned is a dance journey around the globe with "Tango, Waltz and Gallop" and an Italian opera night. In "Symphonic Swing", the orchestra and singer Tom Gaebel will revive the greatest hits of Frank Sinatra, while "Hollywood in Concert" will feature film music by John Williams, Hans Zimmer, Alan Silvestri and Klaus Badelt. For the Kosmos Festival, it will then be "Robert Schumann Philharmonie Meets Pop Artists" - Reiners did not yet want to reveal who these will be.
The Chemnitz musicians will be supported by the Arthur Rubinstein Philharmonic Orchestra in Łódź, Poland. On June 12, they will perform works by Krzysztof Penderecki, Johannes Brahms and Antonin Dvořák under the title "Mosty muzyczne - Musikalische Brücken II".
Piece on Kindertransports 1938/1939
The other sections of Chemnitz Theatre are also preparing a wide variety of projects for the 2025 Capital of Culture year. The planned premiere of the opera "Rummelplatz" based on the novel by Werner Bräunig and a dance voyage of discovery based on James Joyce's "Ulysses" have been known for some time. Under the working title "Archaeology of Things", the puppet theater is planning a play about found objects from Chemnitz garages as well as a theater project on the history of the Kindertransports in 1938 and 1939. Jewish children were taken abroad to protect them from National Socialist persecution, many of whom never saw their parents again.
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