Usedomer Musikfestival

At the Center of the Baltic Sea Region

Founded in 1994, the Usedom Music Festival has turned its geographic location into its program: every year, the music of the Baltic Sea region is the focal point of the classical music festival. As a common cultural space shared by various people and nations, the Baltic Sea offers a rich variety of fascinating and influential musicians and major composers. That is why the Festival dedicates each season to one country bordering the Baltic Sea, presenting its musicians and music. So far, the stations of this journey have been Russia, Poland, the Baltic States, Finland, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Apart from classical concerts, the Festival also presents Jazz, folk, avantgarde music and fine arts. After all, the overarching idea of music transcends geographic borders and builds bridges between ancient and new music, traditional folklore and modern acoustic art.

The Island of Usedom connects Germany and Poland. A sixth of its area and 45,000 inhabitants of the island are located in our Eastern border country. Therefore, international cultural exchange and understanding are among the central tenets the Usedom Music Festival has been dedicated to from its inception. With symphony concerts in the city of Swinoujscie as well as Workshops for young Polish music students, we are building a lasting cultural connection between the two countries. Beyond this, Poland has been the Festival's focal country twice already.

The Peenemünde Concerts

Decades after World War II, the formerly largest amarments project of the so called 'Third Reich' has become a monument to peace and remembrance. Together with the North German Broadcasting (NDR), the Usedom Music Festival initiated a series of 'Peenemunde Concerts' which take place in the turbine hall of the Peenemunde Museum. This marked a new chapter in the history of the place. In the former electricity plant serving the production of rockets, every year audiences gather for musical events with a historic context. Often featuring the NDR Elbphilharmonic Orchestra and the Baltic Sea Philharmonic (founded by the Usedom Music Festival in 2008), the Peenemünde Concerts of the Usedom Music Festival represent a new sign of hope for the future.

With a fanfare - and with great international resonance - the successful concert series began in 2002 with the NDR Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mstislav Rostropovich and with a cast of more than 250 musicians, who performed Benjamin Britten's War Requiem within the historical walls of the turbine hall. The list of featured guest conductors since then reads like a Who is Who of international classical music: Krzysztof Penderecki (2003), Christoph von Dohnanyi (2004), Esa-Pekka Salonen (2005), Alan Gilbert (2006), Manfred Honeck (2006), Andris Nelsons (2007),Thomas Dausgaard (2008), Christoph Eschenbach, Neeme Järvi(2010), Kurt Masur (2012 und 2013), Neeme, Paavo and Kristjan Järvi (2013), Krzysztof Penderecki (2014), Thomas Hengelbrock (2015), Andris Poga (2017) and Robert Trevino (2018) have begun a successful tradition paving the way to further musical highlights in the future.