Chamber music festival Oberlausitz already sold out before the beginning

This year's Chamber Music Festival Oberlausitz (KMO) has to create additional capacity. With 1500 guests, it is already at full capacity before the start, as the organizers announced on Monday. For three of the total of ten concerts in castles and churches in the region, more tickets are to be offered, as for the opening this Friday with the Dresden Kreuzchor. At the third edition of Saxony's youngest classical music festival, more than 100 musicians from 12 countries will give guest performances in the Upper Lusatia-Lower Silesia cultural region.

The response exceeds "our wildest expectations," said artistic director Hagen W. Lippe-Weissenfeld. The audience is growing steadily across all generations, he said, and a solid base has been established. The "extraordinary interest and the wave of sympathy from our audience" is the greatest incentive for the festival's volunteer team and contributors, he said. These include renowned soloists such as mandolinist Avi Avital, violist Nils Mönkemeyer, clarinetist Dimitri Ashkenazy and cellist Jan Vogler.

Vogler, a musician who is also in international demand, will be discussing music, art, culture, home or democracy with the music classes of general education schools under the motto "KMO meets School" at Lessing-Gymnasium Hoyerswerda at the start of a new music education project. The young people can then experience him live on stage on the opening night. "Musical education is part of basic school education," said artistic director Lippe-Weißenfeld. He said the KMO wants to establish an education and training partnership with schools and music schools in the cultural region, the Dresden Music Academy and the Jugend musiziert Lausitz association and take care of the next generation of musicians "in breadth as well as in excellence."