Dresden Music Festival Announces "Cellomania" Event

The 45th Dresden Music Festival will this year feature a cello-focused micro-festival entitled "Cellomania." Festival Director Jan Vogler has assembled more than forty colleagues, who will perform various cello and cello ensemble repertoire over nineteen concerts.

Among the artists featured are the 12 Cellists of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Sheku and Isata Kanneh-Mason, Sol Gabetta and Betrand Chamayou, and Daniel Müller-Schott and Iveta Apkalna.

A range of interesting repertoire is also being presented: Kian Soltani and the Ensemble Shiraz will perform traditional Persian music, as well as Soltani's own compositions, while Jean-Guihen Queyras will showcase the cello's jazz capabilities, and the Finnish band Apocalyptica will demonstrate how the cello can fit into a rock idiom.

The crowning glory of Cellomania will be a concert titled "Long Night of the Cello," to take place on May 26. This concert will feature all of the festival's cellists performing at the Kulturpalast.

Some of the cellists involved in the festival will be staying on for a few days after the performances to give masterclasses and lessons to young artists. From May 27 to 30, David Geringas, Ivan Monighetti, and Miklós Perényi will give public masterclasses at the Dresden College of Music Carl Maria von Weber.

"Cellists are sociable and love to get together," said Jan Vogler, the Director of the Dresden Music Festival.

"I am looking forward to a generation-spanning, inspiring dialogue with my colleagues and friends. To our audience, I can promise a thrilling presentation of many different paths to the cello," he said.