DAS FEST Klassik Orchester und Bachchor

With up to 20,000 visitors, the classical music breakfast on DAS FEST Sunday is the largest 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 Bach Choir Karlsruhe, which is celebrating its 120th anniversary as the oldest and largest oratorio choir in the city, will also be taking part, along with 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). With Joseph Haydn's Creation, the finale of the 9th Symphony will be accompanied by an equally humanistic work. Haydn's famous Symphony No. 94 will also be performed with a timpani roll.

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 discover and create Beethoven's 9th Symphony musically with body percussion and self-made musical instruments - in preparation for the grand finale on the main stage on Sunday morning.