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Ludwigsburg Festival 2023

What excited us this season!

Eleven fantastic festival weeks, over 44 different productions and around 54 events with international classical greats and extraordinary dance ensembles are behind us. The response to the diverse program has been overwhelming and the audience of the Ludwigsburg Schlossfestspiele has returned after the difficult Corona years. We take stock and thank all visitors for coming, their feedback and the trust they have placed in us. It was a great season with full souls in full auditoriums. We would like to thank our institutional sponsors – the City of Ludwigsburg and the Ministry of Science and Baden-Württemberg – as well as the Circle of Friends, the Board of Board of Trustees and all other partners, patrons and sponsors for their support! 


A special thank you also goes to all those who donated for our evening programs at the events. The donations will go to Kharkiv Music Festival, which has been held annually in Kharkiv since 2018. The festival under the artistic direction of Vitali Alekseenok is one of the newest and largest classical music festivals in Ukraine. In this year it has been possible to organize eight full-length concerts in concert halls, concerts in the air-raid shelter and events in the hospital. With your donations, more than 10,000 euros were raised, which will be donated to the  the Kharkiv Music Festival. Many thanks!


Finally, a big thank you goes to all the artists who make the Schlossfestspiele what they are: a luminous and diverse festival of the arts! And again this year we gave away a thank you that will grow again: instead of short-lived bouquets of flowers, we presented certificates of sponsorship for native trees or flowering meadows. So 210 trees and 1000 qm flowering meadows were planted this year!


Let’s take a look at the 2023 season:

2023 the Ludwigsburg Schlossfestspiele was a guest at 17 venues in Ludwigsburg and the region. In total, we reached around 22,500 people with our people with our events.
The overall occupancy rate of the events was around 82 percent and already and after two-thirds of the festival season, the planned revenue target had been had been met. 15 events were completely sold out.

On 22. July, 7365 guests celebrated the season finale in perfect weather with the big «Monrepos Open Air« and its fantastically choreographed fireworks display at the Monrepos lake castle. The American conductor Ryan McAdams celebrated his German debut on the rostrum of the Festival Orchestra with a dance-influenced program from Bernstein, Gershwin and Bizet to Piazzolla, de Falla and Ginastera. The occupancy rate that evening was 95 percent.

After this grandiose finale, let’s take a look at the promising beginning:

The season began with the first »Free Air Music« on May 5, a week before the opening concert. On the market square, people rang the bell with percussionist Ali Hasan and dancer and choreographer Medhat choreographer. They ushered the Fest Spiel summer and brought the living room of Ludwigsburg with ever faster and pulsating movements to tremble. A fantastic prelude with a great program and a good mood, which was not diminished by the final rain.

The further »Free Air Music« -events became a firm appointment with many people from Ludwigsburg. Because from now on, every Friday from 18 o’clock during the festival time were music on the market place to hear. A total of 12 times the market place became the stage for most different music genres and approximately 3650 music fans enjoyed the free concerts on the baroque market square. To the grand finale on July 21, a guest donated a scoop of ice cream to all visitors!


Further continues with the sold-out Overtüre on May 11. The star violinist Diana Tishchenko opened under the baton of Vitali Alekseenok together with the orchestra with works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Peter Tchaikovsky the Schlossfestspiele in the Forum am Schlosspark.

Lars Eidinger also thrilled audiences with two sold-out performances (May 14). The one-hour readings in the Schlossstheater were supported by Hans-Jörn Brandenburg on the harmonium, and Bertolt Brecht’s poems were more topical than ever. ever.

The participation projects «Generation Future Music« (May 12) and »Mini Mal Mut« (May 25) at the beginning of the season were both sold out and allowed children and and young people and the shared experience of music that unites them. 


The discourse and workshop formats of the four-day »17 Ziele Camp« (May 18-21) at the Karlskaserne arts center ensured that the festival festival lived up to its claim of being a »festival of the arts, democracy and sustainability« and and that initiatives and all interested festival guests were able to deal with the with the 17 goals of the UN.


A and at the same time was very well received by this year’s program. evenings such as »Babylon Orchestra Echoes« (May 13), the clarinettist Kinan Azmeh with the New York quartet Brooklyn Rider (June 10) or the »Vision String Quartet« with jazz guitarist Mahan Mirarab (July 16).

Virtual spaces were created by the three-day and always fully booked virtual reality project of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra at the urbanharbor complex. The free format enabled a journey into undiscovered spheres and blurred the boundaries between reality and illusion.  In addition, there was a free live concert by three members of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.

Moving moments in the Forum am Schlosspark were created by Barbara Hannigan’s incomparable and acclaimed interpretation of Poulenc’s »La Voix Humaine«, while conducting the Festival Orchestra and singing the soprano part of the mono-opera. 


Further musical treasures were found in the Ordensaal of the Residenzschloss. Here, among others, violinist Midori, celebrating her 40th stage anniversary, performed Bach’s masterpieces, Alexandre Kantorow with his sold-out romantic piano recital, and the baritone baritone Benjamin Appl, who performed two lied programs at his sold-out artist residency. In addition, he also did a the master class , and filled the house of the Schlossfestspiele with interested listeners. 

The this year’s dance highlights rounded off the program: The spectrum ranged from the impressive interpretation of the dance classic »Le Sacre du printemps« by flamenco innovator Israel Galván (May 20/21) to the filigree Ligeti homage Ligeti homage by choreographer Elisabeth Schilling and her ensemble (May 26). ensemble (May 26) to Pina Bausch’s iconic work »Full Moon« (June 9/10). June). Both performances as well as the dress rehearsal were sold out and sold out and delighted the audience.

The Schlossfestspiele this year once again lived up to its mission as the festival for the whole of Baden-Württemberg.

In Wertheim (Main-Tauber district), Haigerloch and Bad Imnau (Zollernalbkreis) as well as in Bietigheim-Bissingen were guests of the 2023 Schlossfestspiele and thrilled the audience Klezmer Trio KrokeBach Berio Beatles and the Vision String Quartet.

Now time to take a summer break and continue to prepare for the coming season. 


After our summer break we will see you for the concert weekend on 16 and 17. September in Wolfegg with works by Peter Tchaikovsky, Francis Poulenc and Johann Sebastian Bach. 

Our Digital Stage will provide you with videos until then. Via the newsletter and social media, we will keep you up to date and provide exciting insights behind the scenes. 

Advance ticket sales for first highlights of the next season, which begins on June 1 and ends on July 20, 2024, will start on November 9, 2023.

We thank you for your visit and look forward to next year – simply because it has been so nice once again! Your Ludwigsburg Festival