A new direction for the Baden-Baden Easter Festival from 2026 onwards
The Berliner Philharmoniker will return to Salzburg and continue to perform in Baden-Baden.
From 2026, the Baden-Baden Easter Festival will follow a new artistic direction. The Berliner
Philharmoniker will then return to Salzburg for the Easter Festival. This was announced today (9 Jan
2023) by Baden-Baden’s Festspielhaus artistic director Benedikt Stampa and the general manager of
the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation, Andrea Zietzschmann.
“We are very grateful to the Berliner Philharmoniker for building up the Baden-Baden Easter Festival
with us, and for participating in it 12 times up to 2025, with new opera productions and many
concerts. The orchestra has given us important impulses for the seven annual Baden-Baden music,
opera and dance festivals, which we would like to develop further in the future with other artistic
partners,” says Benedikt Stampa. The artistic director continues: “Artists need to change, but should
also know in which places they are always welcome. Baden-Baden is and remains such a place, also
for the Berliner Philharmoniker. All the more reason for us to look forward to the Easter Festivals
with this extraordinary orchestra and its chief conductor Kirill Petrenko which still await us here.”
In 2023, the Richard Strauss opera “Die Frau ohne Schatten” and musical Vienna around 1900 will be
the focus of the Baden-Baden Easter Festival, which will take place from 1 to 10 April.
The orchestra will also perform in Baden-Baden after 2025. A corresponding concept is being worked
on together. Annual concert residencies of the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Festspielhaus Baden-
Baden are planned. This will maintain the connection between the ensemble and the festival city in
the Black Forest that has existed since the beginning of the 20th century, when the orchestra had
been recently founded.
“We are very grateful to the supporters and the entire team of the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden for
the long-standing and friendly collaboration at these special festivals,” says Andrea Zietzschmann,
general manager of the Berliner Philharmoniker Foundation. “We are looking forward to the next
three Easter Festivals in the town, and to this year’s ambitious festival programme with the new
production of “Die Frau ohne Schatten”. We will continue to cultivate our connection to Baden-
Baden and to our loyal festival audience through joint concert projects after 2025. From Easter in
2026, the Berliner Philharmoniker will then return to its original festival venue in Salzburg.”