Hamburg International Music Festival going digital

This year's Hamburg International Music Festival is going entirely digital and will be broadcast as a free livestream from the Elbphilharmonie and Laeiszhalle between May 6 and June 6. The digital festival opens on Thursday (May 6, 2021) with a performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 by the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra conducted by Kent Nagano and the first performance of a "Alisma" by Swiss composer William Blank. 

Highlights of festival

The main focus of the festival are three concerts by and with the American baritone, Thomas Hampson, who recently added a new chapter to his long-term project "Song of America" entitled "A Celebration of Black Music", which he will perform for the first time on European soil together with guest singers such as Louise Toppin, Leah Hawkins, Lawrence Brownlee and Justin Austin. The programme features songs and works mainly by black American 20th century composers, who have rarely been heard in the concert hall hitherto.

Other highlights include the Ensemble Resonanz with Iveta Apkalna, Thomas Hengelbrock and his Balthasar Neumann ensemble, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, once under the baton of chief conductor Alan Gilbert and conducted by Paavo Järvi, the unconventional violinist and Artist in Residence Patricia Kopatchinskaja, and the Belcea Quartet, which will give two recitals of chamber music by Johannes Brahms.

Free livestream of concerts

All livestreams, content and performers can be accessed via the Elbphilharmonie's media library. Founded in 2014, the Hamburg International Music Festival has been held annually since 2018. It is backed by the Minstry of Culture, the Förderkreis Internationales Musikfest Hamburg and the Kühne Foundation. 

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