Mount Klassik - the largest classical music concert in Baden-Württemberg
Main stage | Sunday | 10:00 (ticket required)
With up to 20,000 visitors, the classical music breakfast on DAS FEST Sunday is the biggest classical music event in Baden-Württemberg. In 2025, the morning event will now have a new name: Mount Klassik. The name change will be celebrated with an extraordinary and opulent concert programme. Johannes Hustedt, artistic director of the new DAS FEST Klassik orchestra, the Kammerakademie Nordbaden, says: ‘It has long been my dream to bring Beethoven's 9th Symphony to the DAS FEST stage in its original instrumentation. This deeply human work with Friedrich Schiller's ‘Ode to Joy’ goes perfectly with the spirit of DAS FEST.’ The Bachchor Karlsruhe, which is celebrating its 120th anniversary as the city's oldest and largest oratorio choir, as well as the four renowned and internationally highly successful soloists Christiane Libor (soprano), Barbara Emilia Schedel (mezzo-soprano), Christian Elsner (tenor) and Hanno Müller-Brachmann (bass-baritone) will also be taking part. The concert will be conducted by KMD Christian-Markus Raiser.
The cooperation between Mount Klassik and the Music Swap Lab of the Zukunftslabor, an initiative of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, is new. Under the title ‘Rhythm of Joy’, the Music Swap Lab and the Kammerakademie Nordbaden will be organising a special hands-on activity at the classical music breakfast on Sunday. Music Swap Lab tutor Dominik Schad, who has been touring the world with the STOMP show for ten years, will also be taking part.
This year, the Music Swap Lab will be represented at DAS FEST with several hands-on musical activities. As part of workshops in the children's and cultural area and a hands-on concert on the Culture Stage on Friday, the interactive format of the Future Lab in collaboration with the Kammerakademie Nordbaden invites young festival visitors aged 6 and over to musically discover and create Beethoven's 9th Symphony with body percussion and self-built musical instruments - in preparation for the grand finale on the main stage on Sunday morning.
Program
Main Stage | Sunday | 10:00 (ticket required)
- Joseph Haydn (1732-1809), excerpts from the oratorio ‘The Creation’ for soloists, choir and orchestra
- Joseph Haydn, Symphony No. 94 ‘With the Timpani’
- Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827), Finale of the 9th Symphony with Friedrich Schiller's ‘Ode to Joy’
Performers:
Christiane Libor (soprano)
Barbara Emilia Schedel (mezzo-soprano)
Christian Elsner (tenor)
Hanno Müller-Brachmann (bass-baritone)
Bach Choir Karlsruhe
DAS FEST Classical Orchestra - The Chamber Academy of North Baden
Conductor: KMD Christian-Markus Raiser
Moderation and body percussion participation: Dominik Schad (member of STOMP) & Music Swap Lab
program
The Kammerakademie Nordbaden - DAS FEST Classical Orchestra
This symphony orchestra epitomises musical life in Karlsruhe. It brings together talented young people, students and professional musicians from all of Karlsruhe's music institutions, from the Hochschule für Musik and the Badisches Staatstheater to the Badisches Konservatorium, the Musikgymnasium Karlsruhe, Cantus Juvenum and the region's music schools. It has no permanent conductor and works with various personalities from the Karlsruhe cultural scene: Currently with church music director Christian-Markus Raiser, cantor and organist of the Ev. Stadtkirche Karlsruhe. Prominent presenters lead through the programmes of the Kammerakademie Nordbaden. After music cabaret artist Annette Postel in 2023, STOMP member Dominik Schad and the Music Swap Lab, a project of the Zukunftslabor - an initiative of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, have been invited this year.
The Kammerakademie Nordbaden is a foundation of the Kammerakademie Calw e. V., an artistic/educational project originally founded at the Calw Music School, consisting of children's orchestras, a state-wide youth symphony orchestra ‘La Jeunesse’ and the professional orchestras ‘Camerata 2000’ and ‘Academia Amadeo’. Numerous members are national prizewinners of the Jugend musiziert competition, study at music academies, teach at music schools and conservatories and play in renowned orchestras such as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and the SWR Symphony Orchestra.
The ensembles are enriched by members who have not pursued a professional musical career and take part in numerous projects as accomplished amateurs. Many of the members have known each other since childhood and have passed through all three stages of the orchestra together. This strong social cohesion has created a uniquely moving orchestral sound.
The successes are as varied as the initiatives within the project: from first prize in the children's orchestra category in the Baden-Württemberg state orchestra competition to a CD on the classical label cpo with premiere recordings of oratorio works by Franz Danzi, Friedrich Ernst Fesca and Franz Liszt in co-operation with SWR.
The initiator and founder Manfred Holder studied with Prof Jörg-Wolfgang Jahn at the Karlsruhe University of Music, with the Quartetto Italiano in Milan, with the Melos Quartet in Stuttgart and with the conductor Sergio Celibidache. He teaches in Karlsruhe, Pforzheim and Calw. As an active chamber musician, he has played in the Primavera Quartet and can currently be heard in the Hesse Quartet and the Kammerphilharmonie Karlsruhe.
Kammerakademie
Bachchor Karlsruhe
The BACHCHOR KARLSRUHE was founded in 1905, making it one of the oldest concert choirs in Karlsruhe. Christian-Markus Raiser has been the ensemble's artistic director since 1996. In addition to the great and well-known works, the choir also takes on unknown yet significant works and has realised several important premieres for the city of Karlsruhe. Concert tours have taken the Bach Choir to important churches and cathedrals in Germany such as Berlin Cathedral, St Thomas's Church in Leipzig, the Friedenskirche Potsdam, Braunschweig Cathedral, Himmerod Abbey and many more. In 2016, the Bach Choir recorded works by the Karlsruhe composers Franz Danzi and Friedrich Ernst Fesca with SWR and cpo. In 2020, the choir performed the European premiere of Richard Fuchs' “Vom jüdischen Schicksal” at the Badisches Staatstheater on Holocaust Memorial Day. In November 2022, a special highlight was set with Wolfgang Rihm's ‘Requiem-Strophen’ on the 70th birthday of the important Karlsruhe composer. In 2024, the Bach Choir celebrated Bruckner's 200th birthday with a highly acclaimed performance of his rarely heard Mass in F minor.The choir celebrated its 120th anniversary year with an acclaimed jubilee concert featuring Williams' cantata “Dona nobis pacem” and Beethoven's 9th Symphony and will set further special accents with a concert tour to Memmingen, Augsburg, Kaufbeuren and St. Ottilien and Verdi's “Requiem” on 23 November. A special highlight for the Bach Choir Karlsruhe is its participation in the legendary classical music breakfast ‘Mount Klassik’.
Bachchor
KMD Christian-Markus Raiser
CHRISTIAN-MARKUS RAISER, after studying church music in Stuttgart and Trossingen and teaching at the universities of music in Trossingen and Heidelberg, has been the church music director of the Ev. Stadtkirche Karlsruhe, the episcopal church of the Ev. Landeskirche in Baden, since 1996, as well as the artistic director of various concert series based there, such as the International Organ Summer Karlsruhe. He directs the Bach Choir Karlsruhe, the chamber choir CoroPiccolo Karlsruhe and is jointly responsible for the singing school Cantus Juvenum Karlsruhe.
Under his direction, the Stadtkirche Karlsruhe developed into a centre of church music for the city and region. In 2022, he was awarded the Staufer Medal of the state of Baden-Württemberg for his services to society, the church and culture.
Raiser has given numerous concerts and performances at international music festivals at many important churches and organs in Germany and abroad, such as St Paul's London, Seville Cathedral, Milan Cathedral, Riga Cathedral and Bordeaux Cathedral. He has also made numerous recordings and radio and television recordings.
Conductor
Dominik Schad (member of STOMP) & Music Swap Lab
Kulturbühne | Friday | 16:45 (free of charge)
At the Music Swap Lab, everyone has the opportunity to make music. As a low-threshold offer, it anchors cultural participation and musical self-efficacy in the breadth of society. Whether they have previous musical knowledge or not - children, young people and adults of all ages can become part of the Germany-wide online orchestra thanks to video tutorials at various levels of difficulty. Since 2021, the Music Swap Lab has also been running various live workshops throughout Germany and developing regional projects that bring people, neighbourhoods and communities together through music. The Music Swap Lab is a project of the Zukunftslabor - an initiative of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and takes place as part of a value partnership with dm-drogerie markt. Music Swap Lab tutor Dominik Schad, who has been touring the world with the show STOMP for 10 years, will also be taking part.
