With their top-quality performances of classical music and experimental formats, the Audi Summer Concerts have long been well-known and loved in the Ingolstadt region and beyond. In 2024, the major music festival will take place from June 22 to July 21, with a program that will again feature symphony concerts, chamber music, and excursions into jazz, as well as musical experiences for young people and children. The spectrum ranges from an in-house production of the opera “The Fairy Queen” with a touch of breakdancing and the children’s concert classic “Hansel and Gretel” to a public workshop for Ingolstadt schoolchildren. Opening night will feature the Audi Young Persons’ Choral Academy performing Beethoven’s “Missa solemnis”.
Additional festival highlights include a performance by Sir Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and a “border crossing” into jazz with a reinterpretation of Gustav Mahler by Jazzrausch Bigband. The Audi Classic Open Air will take place on June 29 and 30, with performances by the Audi Philharmonic Wind Orchestra and the Hamburg Philharmonic State Orchestra with star violinist Veronika Eberle under the direction of Kent Nagano. The Classic Open Air concerts are Audi’s way of bringing classical music to a wide range of people. Xavier Ros, Member of the Board of Management for Human Resources and Organization at AUDI AG, emphasizes: “In the city, for the city: Our 2024 Summer Concerts will once again be an unforgettable music festival for young and old – and for all of us in Ingolstadt and the region.”
Opera meets breakdancing – Gustav Mahler meets jazz
On July 6 and 7, the audience can look forward to a unique premiere in the history of the Audi Summer Concerts. For the first time, the festival organizer is putting on their own production, a full-length, semi-staged opera: “The Fairy Queen” by Henry Purcell, a musical interpretation of William Shakespeare’s popular romance “A Midsummer Night’s Dream.”
The vocal ensemble LauschWerk will perform all the arias, duets, and choral passages; the Georgian Chamber Orchestra Ingolstadt will provide the instrumental accompaniment; and Berlin-based The Flying Steps will add breathtaking breakdance elements to represent the lovestruck fairies in all their natural revelry. Out of a love of experimentation, the 2024 Audi Summer Concerts will cross the boundary into jazz when Jazzrausch Bigband performs on July 20. Originally at home in techno jazz, the ensemble also loves to delve into classical music legends. In Ingolstadt, they will play “Mahler’s Breakdown”.
World stars of classical music: Sir Simon Rattle, Trio Orelon, and Grigory Sokolov
Audi is also announcing the involvement of multiple superstars of the classical music scene: Sir Simon Rattle, ex-chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker and most recently the music director of the London Symphony Orchestra, has been the chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) since 2023. “One of the most sought-after conductors in the world,” as Rattle was described by the Bavarian public broadcaster BR-Klassik, is now coming to Ingolstadt. On July 13, Rattle and the BRSO will perform excerpts from “Ride of the Valkyries” by Richard Wagner and Symphony No. 2 by Johannes Brahms. The audience can also look forward to an up-and-coming chamber music ensemble when Trio Orelon, the 2023 ARD music competition winner, performs on July 14. Founded in Cologne in 2018, the trio has risen to the top of the international chamber music scene with breathtaking speed. The audience in Ingolstadt can look forward to their performance of music by the German contemporary composer Wolfgang Rihm, among other highlights. Celebrated pianist Grigory Solokov from Saint Petersburg will also perform, Closing the festival on July 21 with pieces by Bach, Chopin, and Schumann.
Audi as the event organizer
In 2024, Audi is acting not as sponsor of the summer concerts as usual, but as the organizer – and is thus an innovative promoter of cultural life in Ingolstadt. Designed as a festival for the whole family and part of the Audi ArtExperience cultural initiative, the Summer Concerts form part of the corporate citizenship activities of the brand with the four rings. As a good neighbor in the cultural sector as elsewhere, Audi is committed to social engagement in the city and the region.