The Kissinger Sommer is a classical music festival held every year in the summer in the city of Bad Kissingen in Bavaria, Southern Germany.
History The festival was founded in 1986. At the beginning the focus of the festival was on the improvement of the cultural relations between eastern and western Europe. Every year an east-european country was partner of the festival, beginning with Hungary in 1986. Poland, Czechoslovakia and the Soviet Union followed. So the festival became a place where one could see artists from east and west, especially of the partner-countries and of East-Germany.authors, various (1989) "Travel and Exchange", GDR Bulletin, Vol. 15: Iss. 2. https://newprairiepress.org/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1603&context=gdr Among the artists of the first years were Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Boris Pergamenschikow and Svjatoslav Richter. After the fall of the iron curtain the festival turned to a world-wide view with partner-countries in whole Europe, North America and China. Every summer around 50 concerts are attracting about 30 000 visitors. The occurring interpreters are a mixture of well-known international stars like Cecilia Bartoli, Arcadi Volodos, Fazıl Say or Grigory Sokolov, and newcomers, who often later have made a great career too, like Lang Lang, Diana Damrau or David Garrett.
Director of the "Kissinger Sommer" from 1986 until 2016 was Kari Kahl-Wolfsjäger. Her successor, beginning in 2017, was Tilman Schlömp, formerly artistic director at the festival Beethovenfest in Bonn. He changed the concept of the festival. Instead of partner countries, there are now main topics, starting in 2017 with the motto "1830 – Romantic Revolution" and followed in 2018 by "1918 – emergence of the modern age". The contract of Schlömp ended in 2021. Alexander Steinbeis, previously orchestra director of the DSO Berlin, was appointed as his successor from 2022 on.Alexander Steinbeis wird Intendant des Kissinger Sommers , Musik heute, 10 March 2021
In 2020 the festival was cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.Kissinger Sommer 2020: Jetzt ist das ganze Festival abgesagt , Main Post, 20 May 2020
Contemporary music From the beginning the festival is also a place for contemporary composers like Alfred Schnittke, Sofia Gubaidulina, Edison Denisov, Aribert Reimann or Wolfgang Rihm. There have been world premieres of composers like Jean Françaix (Dixtuor, in 1987), Krzysztof Penderecki (Sinfonietta No. 2 for clarinet and string orchestra, in 1994) and Fazıl Say (Sonata for clarinet and piano, op. 42, in 2012). Since 2006 composers present themselves and premieres of their music in the workshop Bad Kissinger Liederwerkstatt. Up to 2018, around 80 world premieres have already been produced as part of the Liederwerkstatt.Jesper Klein: Fräulein Else sucht nach Musik, Frankfurter Allgemeine, 4 July 2018, p. 11 However, there are also world premieres outside the Liederwerkstatt, such as the Concerto No. 1 for violin and orchestra by Gediminas Gelgotas in 2018 and in 2019 a new version of the opera "Orfeo ed Euridice" by .
Artists in residence Artists-in-residence have been in the last years: 2014 Ning Feng and Igor LevitDas klingende Treiben beginnt, Main Post, 12 June 2014 2015 Igor Levit 2016 Daniil TrifonovKissinger Sommer feiert 30-jähriges Jubiläum mit Staraufgebot , Deutsche Welle (dw.com), 24 June 2016 2017 Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Vesselina Kasarova»Palastrevolution« beim Kissinger Sommer , Main Post, 3 November 2016 2018 Sol GabettaSol Gabetta wird Artist in Residence beim Kissinger Sommer , Main Post, 3 November 2017 2019 Julia LezhnevaJulia Lezhneva, die Sopranistin im Wunderland , Main Post, 18. Juni 2019 2020 Jean-Yves Thibaudet (planned, festival cancelled)
Orchestra in residence 2017–2021 Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie BremenKlassische Revolte , Rondo, 3/2017
Luitpold Prize Every year since 1999 the Luitpoldpreis (Luitpold Prize) is awarded to a young interpreter of the festival. The prize is named after Luitpold, Prince Regent of Bavaria, who let build the great Bad Kissingen concert hall Regentenbau, where many of the concerts of the festival take place. The winners are:
1999 – Nikolaj Znaider, violin 2000 – Alisa Weilerstein, cello 2001 – Jochen Kupfer, baritone 2002 – , soprano 2003 – Baiba Skride, violin 2004 – Jan Kobow, tenor 2005 – Mojca Erdmann, soprano 2006 – Peter Ovtcharov, piano 2007 – Tine Thing Helseth, trumpet 2008 – David Lomeli, tenor 2009 – Igor Levit, piano 2010 – Kejia Xiong, tenor 2011 – Anna Lucia Richter, soprano 2012 – Dmitry Korchak, tenor 2013 – Julia Novikova, soprano 2013 – Konstantin Shamray, piano 2014 – Kian Soltani, cello 2015 – Sung Min Song, tenorThomas Ahnert: Beliebte Regularien; Saale-Zeitung, 20 July 2015, Seite 6 2016 – Andrei Ioniță, cello 2017 – Julian Trevelyan, piano 2018 – , soprano 2019 – , tenor 2020 – not awarded (festival cancelled) 2021 – Sarah Aristidou, soprano 2022 – Lucas & Arthur Jussen, piano 2023 – María Dueñas, violin 2024 – Timothy Ridout, viola 2025 – , pianoEhrenvolle Auszeichnung und starke Förderung beim Festival, Saale-Zeitung, 22 July 2025
Kissinger Klavierolymp The festival is connected to the Kissinger Klavierolymp (Kissinger Piano Olympics), a competition of young pianists which takes place in autumn in Bad Kissingen since 2003. The prize for the winners is a performance at the Kissinger Sommer. Among them are Martin Helmchen, Nikolai Tokarev, Kirill Gerstein, Igor Levit, Alice Sara Ott and Kit Armstrong. Among the last winners are Elisabeth Brauß (2016), Emre Yavuz (2017) and Juan Pérez Floristán (2018). Juan Pérez Floristán gewinnt Kissinger KlavierOlymp , Main-Post 9 October 2018
Recipients No. Year 1st place 2nd place 3rd place Audience Prize 1. 2003 Martin HelmchenNikolai Tokarev Stewart Goodyear Kirill Gerstein Mihaela Ursuleasa 2. 2004 Alexei Zuev Igor Levit Alice Sara Ott Andrei Banciu 3. 2005 Herbert Schuch Lukas Vondrávcek Anna WinnizkajaPeter Ovtcharov Joseph MoogMiroslav Kultyshev 4. 2006 Christian Ihle HadlandKit Armstrong not awarded Alexej Gorlach Mona Asuka Ott 5. 2007 Vestards Šimkus Michail Lifits David Kadouch Zhang Hai'ou 6. 2008 Yeol Eum Son Olga Scheps Benjamin Kim Claire Huangci 7. 2009 Kiryl Keduk Boris Kusnezow Kateryna Titova Kiryl Keduk 8. 2010 Behzod Abduraimov Nareh Arghamanyan Avan Yu Alexei Grigorjew 9. 2011 Konstantin Shamray Adan Laloum Pawel Kolesnikow Pawel Kolesnikow 10. 2012 Magdalena MüllerperthDa Sol Kim not awarded Beatrice Magnani Magdalena Müllerperth 11. 2013 Chi-Ho Han Georgy Tchaidze Aurelia Shimkus Chi Ho Han 12. 2014 Julian Jia Niu Niu Boyang Shi Julian Jia 13. 2015 Jorge González Buajasán Maxim Lando Clayton Stephenson Jorge González 14. 2016 Elisabeth Brauß Julian TrevelyanThomas Schuch not awarded Nikolay Khozyainov 15. 2017 Emre Yavuz Sergei Redkin Viktor Soos 16. 2018 Juan Pérez Floristán Martin James Bartlett Łukasz Krupiński Martin James Bartlett 17. 2019 Tomoki Sakata Tiffany Poon Robert Neumann Tomoki SakataJapaner gewinnt Kissinger KlavierOlymp , Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR 24), 7 October 2019 18. 2020 Sergey Tanin Yoav Levanon Ziyu Liu Sergey TaninSergey Tanin gewinnt Kissinger KlavierOlymp, Musik heute, 5 October 2020 19. 2021 Giorgi Gigashvili Sandro Nebieridze Gustav Piekut Giorgi GigashviliGiorgi Gigashvili siegt beim 19. Kissinger Klavierolymp, klassik.com, 5 October 2021 20.2022 Roman Borisov Tony Siqi Yun Ariel Lanyi Tony Siqi YunRoman Borisov gewinnt 20. Kissinger Klavierolymp, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR24), 10 October 2022 21.2023 Mihály Berecz Mirabelle Kajenjeri Miyu Shindo Miyu ShindoKrankenhaus statt großer Bühne , Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR Klassik), 9. Oktober 202322.2024Illia OvcharenkoJérémie MoreauOnutė GražinytėSimon HajeIllia Ovcharenko gewinnt Kissinger KlavierOlymp Klassik.com, 8. October 202423.2025Alon KarivDmitry YudinElia CecinoDmitry YudinAlon Kariv gewinnt Klavierolymp 2025, Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR Klassik), 6. October 2025
References
External links Homepage "Kissinger Sommer" Opening concert 2017, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen