Author: Andrea Kerner

Immediately following Classical:NEXT, part of the ARCC team will travel on to Tallin for this year’s IAMA Conference, the annual meeting point for international presenters, agencies, and music managers. The conference sessions will focus on topics such as touring, talent development and lifelong learning, new concert formats and opportunities for venues, changes in commissioning practices, and much more. Andreas Richter, Ina Holthaus and Michael Sauter look forward to connecting with colleagues from the international music community!

14 – 16 April 2026, Estonia National Concert Hall and Opera, Tallin
35th IAMA INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE AND AUDIO CLASSIQUE
The 35th IAMA International Conference encorporating the 4th edition of Audio Classique

Lars Ulrik Mortensen, still one of the most inspiring musicians in early music, has found ideal partners in the musicians of Concerto Copenhagen for his spirit of experimentation in exploring the repertoire. In their program New Brandenburg Concertos, the orchestra and its musical director will present Johann Sebastian Bach’s six trio sonatas for organ at the Thüringer Bachwochen in a completely new, richly colored orchestration inspired by the Brandenburg Concertos. On the evening before, there will be a chamber music concert featuring works by Bach and some of his favorite students, including Johann Ludwig Krebs, Johann Gottlieb Goldberg, as well as his sons Carl Philipp Emanuel and Wilhelm Friedemann Bach.

9 & 10 April 2026, Thüringer Bachwochen
BACH’S BESTIES / NEW BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS
Concerto Copenhagen / Lars Ulrik Mortensen, harpsichord & leader
Works by J. S. Bach, J. L. Krebs, J. G. Goldberg, C. F. Abel, P. Kirnberger, C. P. Emanuel & W. F. Bach // J. S. Bach: Triosonaten 1 – 6, BWV 525 – 2530, arr. by Antoine Torunczyk

After two successful editions in Berlin, the world’s largest international classical music conference is moving eastward: in mid-April, Classical:NEXT will take place in Budapest for the first time. Once again, the conference program offers a wide range of inspiring topics: new concert formats and audience development, digitalization and AI, change management and sustainability, and much more. Showcases will present a broad spectrum of outstanding artists and productions from genres – from early to contemporary, traditional to experimental – from around the world.

Since 2024, Andreas Richter has joined the organising GmbH as a partner and, together with the ARCC team, is responsible for the conference part of the event.

08 – 11 April 2026, Millenáris, Budapest Music Center, Liszt Academy
Classical:NEXT – THE GLOBAL GATHERING FOR ALL ART MUSIC PROFESSIONALS
Conference Sessions, Showcases, Meet Ups, Exhibition, Mentorings and more

We have a lot planned for the coming months! First and foremost, a series of wonderful concerts featuring: Lars Ulrik Mortensen & Concerto Copenhagen ✭ Chamber Orchestra of Europe & Simon Rattle ✭ Sarah Willis & The Sarahbanda ✭ Scharoun Ensemble ✭ Freiburger Barockorchester & René Jacobs ✭ Europa Galante & Fabio Biondi ✭ Finnish Baroque Orchestra ✭ Itamar Carmeli ✭ Phantasm Viol Consort

In addition, we will be traveling to Classical:NEXT in Budapest, the IAMA Conference in Tallin, and later in the year to the Festival Crete Senesi in Tuscany!

Concerto Copenhagen presents J. S. Bach’s six organ trio sonatas in a completely new, abundantly colourful orchestration, inspired by the Brandenburg Concertos. In close collaboration with the orchestra’s musicians and artistic director Lars Ulrik Mortensen, oboist Antoine Torunczyk has reimagined these works—with instruments such as the traverso, recorder, oboe d’amore, oboe da caccia, viola d’amore, natural horn, violoncello da spalla, and bassoon. The result is a sonic universe that renders Bach’s music both familiar and strikingly new.

26 March 2026, Internationales Bachfest Stuttgart
NEW BRANDENBURG CONCERTOS
Concerto Copenhagen / Lars Ulrik Mortensen, conductor
J. S. Bach: Trio sonatas 1 – 6, BWV 525 – 2530, arr. Antoine Torunczyk

In March, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe is invited to Athens, where it will perform Beethoven’s piano concertos over two days with Kirill Gerstein. What makes this two-day residency particularly special is that Gerstein is including Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 0 in the cycle. Before there was a “No. 1,” there was effectively a “No. 0,” written by the young Beethoven around 1785, at the age of 13 or 14. This work predates his officially numbered piano concertos and clearly shows the influence of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. It was never published during Beethoven’s lifetime, and he himself did not assign it a number. It was only published posthumously in the catalogue as WoO 4 (“Werk ohne Opuszahl” — work without opus number).

For the COE, the performance of this partially surviving work marks a premiere.

18 & 19 March 2026, Megaron – The Athens Concert Hall
BEETHOVEN PIANO CYCLE
Chamber Orchestra of Europe / Kirill Gerstein, piano & leader
L. v. Beethoven: Piano concertos 1 – 5, WoO 4.

Rediscovering unjustly forgotten composers is part of the artistic DNA of Fabio Biondi and his ensemble Europa Galante. The Belgian composer Pieter Van Maldere (1729–1768), court composer in Brussels, played a key role in the development of the symphony. His works enjoyed popularity across Europe and influenced both Haydn and Mozart. The programme which Europa Galante will perform in Antwerp traces a delicate lineage of symphonic genesis from Vivaldi to Mozart.

With Ian Bostridge, the orchestra will take a step back in music history: Lamento explores affections and emotions—grief, joy, conflict, and delight—capturing the full range of human feeling as expressed in the 17th century through new musical forms and techniques, particularly those that emerged in Italy.

12 March 2026, DeSingel
FROM VIVALDI TO MOZART
Europa Galante / Fabio Biondi, violin & leader
Works by P. van Maldere, A. Vivaldi, J. Haydn & W. A. Mozart

16 March 2026, Brucknerhaus Linz / 21 March 2026, Laieszhalle Hamburg
LAMENTO
Europa Galante / Ian Bostridge, tenor / Fabio Biondi, violin & leader
Works by D. Castello, C. Monteverdi, C. Farina, S. D’India & G. Frescobaldi

The Phantasm Viol Consort launched its own concert series in March 2025 at St Elisabeth Church in Berlin-Mitte. A total of four concerts are devoted entirely to polyphony, each focusing on a composer who was particularly distinguished in this compositional technique. In the fourth and final concert of the series, Phantasm presents five- and six-part consorts by the relatively little-known composer William Lawes (1602–1645).

Following the concert, guests are invited to a reception at the bar!

“No matter how much one engages with historical models and sources, nothing prepares you for the originality and daring of William Lawes’s consort pieces,” says Laurence Dreyfus, founder and musical director of Phantasm. A foretaste is offered by the ensemble’s two Lawes recordings from 2001 and 2002:

POLYPHONISCHE BEGEGNUNGEN – POLYPHONIC ENCOUNTER
Concert IV – William Laws, Exceptional Eccentric
Five- and Six-Part Consorts
Sunday, 8 March 2026, 5:00 p.m. St. Elisabeth
Laurence Dreyfus, treble viol and musical leader / Emilia Benjamin, treble viol / Jonathan Manson, tenor viol / Heidi Gröger, tenor viol / Markku Luolajan-Mikkola, bass viol / Martin Jantzen, bass viol