Festivalcampus-Ensemble

For the first time in the history of the Musikfestival, a special ensemble of 22 excellent young soloists will be assembled. It will open the 2023 festival year and can be experienced in the following weeks at different venues and with different instrumentations in a total of 18 concerts.

Creating experimental fields, creative spaces and action areas for young musicians in the festival – this is a central concern of the joint artistic direction of Thorsten Schmidt and Igor Levit. The newly formed Festivalcampus-Ensemble gives musical form to the guiding idea of "Together" on site and continues the idea of the Heidelberger Frühling Kammermusikakademie led by Igor Levit for several years.

The young artists' place of work and activity will initially be the festival campus, which will turn the venues around University Square into a vibrant epicenter of music and encounter for four weeks in the spring. The artists will be guided by renowned teachers such as Gregor Sigl, member of the Artemis Quartett and professor of chamber music at the Berlin University of the Arts, or cellist and improvisation artist Matthew Barley in the rehearsal phase preceding the Musikfestival. Together they work out a carefully coordinated programme and develop different concert formats. The spectrum ranges from the opening concert and concerts on the stage of the Aula of the Alte Universität of Heidelberg to performances in Heidelberg's neighborhoods with free admission. This is also where the collaboration with many district partners from the 2022 re:start program will find its continuation.