Shaping the future together 

We have a keen interest both in music and in the critical questions of our time – and we believe these go well together, central to both being diverse modes of expression and the understanding of these, questions and answers, thinkers, movers and shakers. We are especially interested in all those who wish to be part of change. Change consistent with the  SDGs is an integral element of the thinking that goes into the Festival – above all, enquiring, creative and intergenerational. Our credo is: Only those who think about tomorrow today still have time to make a difference.

In order to guarantee this approach in future, we want to act now together with the thinkers and movers and shakers of tomorrow. This is why we place special store not only by planning our agenda for our younger audience, but also and above all to discover their creative potential. With formats such as "Generation Zukunft Musik", we offer the young generations the opportunity of changing their perspective and, as creative artists or as communicators of information, to look behind the scenes of the Festival. To sum up, in the spirit of Aurelio Peccei, a founder of the Club of Rome: the first step in tackling future tasks together is participation. This attitude unites everyone in co-operation, dialogue and empathy, and above all provides the opportunity of assuming responsibility for what is to come.

The Ludwigsburg Festival, too, has decided to take an active part in change. Motivated by the 2030 Global Agenda of the United Nations, founded 75 years ago after WWII, we are adopting the 17 Sustainable Development Goals as a guide on the path to a fairer and more humane world. In a personal meeting, Amina J. Mohammed, UN Deputy Secretary-General, supported Jochen Sandig in the vision of opening the Festival, with its almost 90-year history, for the critical questions of our age, in the following words: "We created the roadmap and now we need music, dance and all the arts to set people in motion". So the Ludwigsburg Festival would like to invite you all to come together as a community in the context of the events. The idea is to encourage the exchange of ideas through music, dance and conversation, and to expand artistic experience to include socio-political stimuli.

Projects

How how we put our vision into practice can be seen in our participatory projects. participative projects. For example, we are continuing our successful formats »Generation Zukunft Musik« with our educational partners and »Mini Mal Mut« with children from third to sixth grade. We will also be offering four additional hands-on projects in 2024:

»In C Community« on 22/23 June – project to dance along

Conceived as a democratic dance practice, Sasha Waltz has translated the musical figures of Terry Riley's composition of the same name into 53 movement figures in her choreography »In C« and thus devised a structured improvisation that allows individual creative freedom while at the same time relating to the group. The piece is about belonging, harmony and the power of polyphony. At our free workshops at the Karlskaserne art centre, you can gain basic insights into the principles and figures of choreography under the guidance of Hrishikesh Pawar, Janna Kleinknecht and dancers from the company. The workshop slots on all three days last three hours.

»Wie klingt Heimat? on 24 June – school concert

In 2024, the internationally renowned Mahler Chamber Orchestra will will be our guest in Ludwigsburg and, among other things, present its exciting, participatory concert project »Welcome Home!« on June 24, 11:30 am. In it, the orchestra and musically with the themes of home and origin – as an orchestra, whose 45 members come from around 20 nations, this is a central concern. concern. An essential part of the concert is the diverse perspectives of pupils from Ludwigsburg, which are presented in the form of audio recordings and integrated into the program in the form of audio recordings and texts. For this purpose the orchestra has compiled a collection of questions and comprehensive preparatory material on the historical and political context of the musical of the musical works. This offer is aimed at school classes between the ages of 14 and 19. Are you a teacher and interested in your class? class? Please contact us at education@schlossfestspiele.de.

Project info

»Johannes Passion Bach« on 28 June – sing-along project

You can sing along to Bach's St John Passion in Haigerloch, which is celebrating its 300th anniversary. Anyone who buys a ticket can sing along to the chorales from the audience without registering or attending a workshop - conducted and led by the Icelandic tenor Benedikt Kristjánsson, who will take on the remaining arias and recitatives. Thanks to our cooperation with Carus-Verlag, you will receive the sheet music free of charge with your ticket purchase, either to download or to collect from our ticket office. We also offer a sing-along shuttle that will take you from Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart to Haigerloch and provide you with an introduction to the work and a guided sing-in on the bus. You can find more information here.

»VOCES8 Sing Along« on 13/14 July – sing-along project

As part of its residency, the British vocal ensemble VOCES8 invites you to a sing-along at Speisewerk urbanharbor in addition to its two concerts. At the concert on 14 July at 3 pm, VOCES8 will sing on stage together with around 100 singers from the region. This will be preceded by two workshops with Paul Smith - founding member of VOCES8 and former baritone, who is now in charge of the ensemble's educational work. Works by Orlando Gibbons, Bobby McFerrin/Yo-Yo Ma and Frank Ticheli, among others, will be sung. You can no longer apply for the project choir.

»Generation Zukunft Musik« (13 June) & »Mini Mal Mut« (20 June)

Entirely in the spirit of the 2024 festival focus, our established participation established participation formats also deal with the topics of democracy and (co)humanity and:

In the »Generation Zukunft Musik« concert not only great ensembles and performances by our four educational partners, but also a supporting program designed by a group of young people. by a group of young people. From March 2024, they will meet in the »Zukunft Musik Gestalten« laboratory and work on rhythm, improvisation, bodywork, language and moderation. moderation. In the workshops, they can explore their own creativity and musicality creativity and musicality and round off the musical-theatrical program of the educational partners into a joint concert experience.

»Mini Mal Mut« also lives from the contributions of the children involved. In this case, it is about school classes between the third and sixth grades, who come up with creative group creative group compositions based on the principles of minimal music. In preparation, four music teachers come to the schools and show them how to make music with everyday objects, instruments and voice or speech, for example and let the classes playfully experience how easy it can be to turn small ideas into can be to create entire pieces of music from small ideas. You can find out more in the video documentation of 2022.