Elbphilharmonie Summer to feature classical music and global jazz

13 April 2023

Series of concerts spanning genres and countries (August 14-30, 2023)

This year's Elbphilharmonie Summer will span from the classical music of Mozart and Mahler to jazz and works by musicians from Europe and Africa when ten concerts are performed from August 14 to 30, 2023. The stars include major symphony orchestras, African jazz legends and a Flemish vocal ensemble.

Musical spirit of Europe

Young musicians are preparing to spread Europe's musical spirit on August 17, 2023 when the European Union Youth Orchestra and British pianist Benjamin Grosvenor perform Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto in the Elbphilharmonie. Young jazz artists will perform their compositions on August 20, backed by jazz musicians such as Clarice Assad, Donny McCaslin and Sullivan Fortner. The unique Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, consisting of members of European and Ukrainian ensembles as well as many refugees from the orchestras of Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv and Odessa will take to the Elbphilhrmonie's stage in late August. The orchestra will perform the Second Violin Concerto by the Ukrainian composer Yevhen Stankovych and Beethoven's 3rd Symphony "Eroica" on August 30 conducted by the Canadian-Ukrainian Keri-Lynn Wilson.

From "Ethio-Jazz" to South African piano sounds

The legendary vibraphonist Mulatu Astatke, who hails from Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, and his band present style-defining "Ethio-jazz" on August 23, 2023 followed just days later by jazz icon Abdullah Ibrahim's solo piano-concert in the Grand Hall on August 26, 2023. The South African pianist and composer has performed with jazz greats like Duke Ellington and John Coltrane, and his piece "Mannenberg" became an anthem of the anti-apartheid movement.

Silent movies and a-cappella highlights

Other summer highlights include a screening of the silent movie, "The Merry Widow", an adaptation of Franz Lehár’s operetta "Die lustige Witwe", to which Ensemble Resonanz performs a new, live soundtrack on August 14, The Flemish a-cappella vocal ensemble, Graindelavoix, will perform its "Rolling Stone" work on August 27, 2023 which is ultimately an exploration of art and music during crises. The centrepiece is the twelve-part mass "Et ecce terrae motus" by Antoine Brumel, which is a musical depiction of the biblical earthquake in the early16th century when Jesus' tombstone rolled away. Tickets for the Elbphilharmonie Summer 2023 are available online.

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