Questions to our new director

Around the turn of the millennium, I lived in Berlin for several years as a freelance musician with my family and played at numerous venues, including the Konzerthaus. As a metropolis full of history, fractures and people from all kinds of backgrounds, Berlin tells us a lot about where we come from, where we might  go and also how we might deal with obstacles in the future. Its international diversity and creative pulse have always fascinated me about this city.

I grew up with music, it was almost something I took for granted. Nevertheless, I thought about it a lot - as a violinist, when I founded the Ensemble Resonanz, and as a music manager in search of new concert forms. It is an indispensable part of my life, of my way to see at the world and gain knowledge of it. For me, art always stems from the attempt to question the great mystery of the universe: What does it mean to be human in this world? This can certainly be approached in many ways, for example from a scientific or religious perspective. For me, music offers a way of sensing something behind such questions. And wonderfully, it is always open and can be experienced on so many levels: with the heart, the head or the body. It always shimmers between emotion and entertainment, between inspiration and fun. I want to share this and make it accessible.

Our society is changing. If we want to be a concert hall for all Berliners, we have to be part of this change. Of course, European classical music is the core of our work at the Konzerthaus, but beyond that we want to be open and curious about music that expands this horizon and has long been at home in Berlin. There is a prejudice that classical music is only for a relatively small circle. In my experience, that's not what music is about. It's often cultural practices, the trappings, that make access more difficult. I am convinced that if we overcome some barriers, there is an art that can reach everyone without any preconditions and can strike at the heart.

Sure. But I think that most of the experiences that move us at our core are not one-dimensional. It is often the very thing that enriches us in particular that is associated with intensity. Classical music may sometimes seem more complex and ambivalent than some other music. But at best, this keeps us excited and wide awake. And everyone is welcome to articulate an opinion on what they have heard and ask questions, regardless of whether they are in the know or just discovering.

For example, we have included ‘Herz über Kopf’, a new salon format in the programme in which music is discussed from a fan's perspective. The host for the 2025/26 season is actor Charly Hübner. He has good ears and a clever mind and will be our expert for surprising approaches and horizon-broadening associations. Another new series, “Berlin Tracks”, follows diverse traces of Berlin's musical life in the border areas of art music and presents artists who have carved out their own unique path in the city.

The first highlight for me is the opening of the season with Joana Mallwitz, the Konzerthausorchester and Alice Sara Ott as the soloist in Bryce Dessner's piano concerto. The concert will also be broadcast in the Friedrichshain and Rehberge open-air cinemas, reaching many more people in the neighbourhoods. In November, we are dedicating a festival to Lili and Nadia Boulanger, these great female composer sisters of the 20th century, who deserve much more attention than they have received so far. Over three weekends in February, we will then present the festival ‘Vom Anfangen’. It is about the beginning as a moment of a thousand possibilities, the necessary courage, doubt and despair, procrastination as well as the phenomenon of the fragment. And at the end, there will be the greatest beginning story, with Joseph Haydn's creation. Above all, however, I am really looking forward to working with the Konzerthausorchester and Joana Mallwitz. In addition to Joana's unconditional claim to artistic excellence, I'm thrilled that she always seeks a relationship with the audience and the world when thinking about music.