Before we start the new festival season on May 11 with the »Fest Spiel Overture«, the overture of the past year closes our »nachgehört« series . In the Forum am Schlosspark Oksana Lyniv conducted the emotional opening concert under the motto »No More War« with Mozart’s Piano Concerto and Mahler’s Fifth Symphony.

The crowning finale of each season is traditionally an impressive fireworks display together with the Festival Orchestra. In 2023, the sky will again shine in all colours at the »Monrepos Open Air«. Since 2010, Potsdamer Feuerwerk GmbH has had it in its hands – under the direction of Björn Wilhelm. Born in Berlin, he began his pyrotechnics career at Potsdamer Feuerwerk GmbH and, since 2005, has been the head of the company, which specializes in fireworks, laser and multimedia shows.

The mass as a genre of church music has a long development behind it: over the course of time, initially monophonic chants developed into increasingly complex musical works with the goal of an artistic aesthetic. The strict liturgical binding gave way to the establishment as an independent musical genre – a process that can be traced using the measurements of the three big Bs as an example.

A spherical dive begins as soon as the first note of trumpeter Marco Blaauw connects with the film »Moving Picture 946-3«.  The joint project of visual art, film, composition and live music, which can be experienced at Scala on June 24, is preceded by an exciting genesis.

Ludwigsburg was once designed as a model city and still is today. Over the past twenty years, conferences and several dialogue forums concerning the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have been held to develop approaches for a fairer and more sustainable coexistence. The Ludwigsburg Festival wants to support this process with artistic impulses and offer a platform for dialogue in the season with the »17 Goals Camp« in May 2023.

On the 60th anniversary of Charles de Gaulle’s »Speech to the German Youth«, we asked: How would a speech by the youth sound today? What wishes, goals, and criticisms would young voices of the present day want to articulate? A few months have passed since our appeal, during which young people have been in which young people have given thought and contributed their voices. Sixty years after the historic »Speech to the German Youth« in Ludwigsburg, members of the Ludwigsburg Youth Community Council and students of the students of the Gymnasium Balingen wrote their »Speeches to the of the youth« and addressed today’s decision-makers.

In many industries, women are still underrepresented today. This fact does not actually apply to music. For at no time in history has there been a lack of musical creations or cultural action by the female sex. The

freelance musicologist Susanne Wosnitzka explains aspects of a whole world of misappropriated musical history, reflected in the meager awareness of female virtuosos.

On 10 July, the Freiburg guest performance »THE 3RD BOX« comes to Ludwigsburg. The four performers let the audience take part in their journey of coming to terms with their gender and their identity and thus want to encourage self-reflection. Those who wish to explore the topic in more detail can take part in the »3RD BOX WORKSHOP«, which offers a safe space for exploration and exchange on four dates in the preceding week of July. Kit and Balthazar are performers in »THE 3RD BOX« and lead the workshop together with Gary Joplin. In the interview, they give insights into the process and tell us what was and is close to their hearts.

It is actually a very nice tradition when artists are presented with flowers at the end of a concert. In the spirit of sustainability, however, we would like to express our gratitude in the long term and instead of bouquets we give away certificates of tree and flower meadow sponsorships.

We would like to report on our own contribution to a climate-neutral and sustainable cultural landscape in the narrow sense and to the implementation of the 17 goals in the broad sense. It is very important to us to keep an eye on the effects of our institutional actions, to check them and to constantly improve them. We have supplemented our interim assessment from 2021 with interim goals achieved and measures introduced in 2022.

How can art and sustainability be designed hand in hand? Read more about the concept of the Ludwigsburg Festival in the article by Engagement Global.