Dresden gives residency to Israel Phil

The Israel Philharmonic with conductor Omer Meir Wellber, 34, has been named orchestra in residence at the 2016 Dresden Music Festival in May-June.

Other ensembles involved in the festival’s Israel-Germany theme are the Jerusalem Quartet and the German-based New Jewish Chamber Philharmonic, which performs works banned by the Nazis.

press release:

For its 39th festival programme, the Dresden Music Festival has taken as its motto “Time”, whose various facets will be examined from 5 May to 5 June 2016 in 52 concerts given by some of the most renowned figures in the international classical music scene such as Leonidas Kavakos, Andris Nelsons, Kristine Opolais, Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Daniil Trifonov, Arabella Steinbacher and Semyon Bychkov, to mention just a few of the performers who have been invited.

“A good concert always also provides us with a magical intellectual discourse between the past and the future,” festival director Jan Voglersays of the motto for the 39th Dresden Music Festival. And such a discourse seems particularly vital at the moment, in view of current problems such as xenophobia, hostility towards refugees and resurgent racism. Vogler, a committed humanist, is convinced that the 2016 festival can make a significant contribution here: “Music always has a strong connective effect. Confucius said that music can prevent wars and guarantee peace in society. I think society still very much underestimates what music can achieve.”