Artistic Director Michael Becker, Commercial Director Burkhard Scheuer, Dramaturge Uwe Sommer-Sorgente and Music Educator Lorna Bowden presented the Tonhalle Düsseldorf’s program for the 2024/25 concert season.
Clarinettist Sharon Kam will be the Tonhalle Düsseldorf’s new Artist in Residence. In the 2024/25 season, the German-Israeli musician will showcase her versatility in seven concerts and also share the stage with family members and friends: She shines in Max Bruch’s double concerto for clarinet and viola, in which her brother Ori will appear as the second soloist. She will play works by Debussy, Messiaen and Brahms in a chamber music setting. She will also appear as a soloist in two comedy concerts – in one of which Sharon Kam’s husband Gregor Bühl will conduct the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra.
Artistic Director Michael Becker emphasized the enormous artistic development the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra has undergone in recent years and that the international reputation of the orchestra and the Tonhalle Düsseldorf has grown noticeably: « The Tonhalle is on the radar and Düsseldorf is planned as a stop on the concert calendar, as we can see from the increased interest from artist agencies as well as from the confirmation of big names in the classical music business. Outstanding conductors and soloists of our time want to perform with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker and thrill audiences in concerts under the Tonhalle’s starry dome. »
In the 2024/25 season, conductors Markus Poschner, Michael Sanderling, Kahchun Wong, Jonathon Heyward and Andris Poga will make their debut with the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, with soloists including Alena Baeva, Alina Ibragimova and Nicolas Altstaedt. Violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann, Artist in Residence for the 2020/21 coronavirus season, returns to the Tonhalle to celebrate his 60th birthday with Brahms’ Violin Concerto in D major.
Adam Fischer, Principal Conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker, will conduct three programs in which he will continue his Beethoven-Schubert cycle and once again delight the Düsseldorf audience with magical Mahler interpretations. Since the multi-award-winning recording of Gustav Mahler’s complete symphonic oeuvre, Fischer, the Düsseldorf orchestra and Mahler have been considered a dream team that has also enjoyed international success – most recently on a tour of Spain in March 2024. In 2024/25, Adam Fischer will also conduct the 10th Human Rights Concert and two celebratory galas: in September 2024 for his own 75th birthday and in March 2025 for the International Classical Music Awards (ICMA), which will take place in the Tonhalle for the first time and make the concert hall the place to be for representatives of the international music industry and outstanding musicians from all over the world.
Conductor Alpesh Chauhan has just extended his contract as Principal Guest Conductor of the Düsseldorfer Symphoniker for a further three years. He will conduct two concerts in the 2024/25 season, with the symphony concerts in May 2025 promising to be particularly exciting: The program includes the world premiere of a new trumpet concerto by Kareem Roustom and « Das Lied von der Erde » with the excellent soloists Karen Cargill and Simon O’Neill – Mahler for once not under the baton of Adam Fischer, but that of his young colleague Alpesh Chauhan. The Briton will also conduct the traditional Festival of Lights at Schloss Benrath and the newly conceived Valentine’s Concert – a romantic premiere in the Tonhalle’s concert calendar.
The chamber music series features world stars such as violinist Janine Jansen and the French Beethoven experts Quatuor Ébène, Artist in Residence Sharon Kam plays concerts with Liza Ferschtman, Christian Poltéra and Enrico Pace as well as with the Jerusalem Quartet.
Other events include the ‘Comedy geht ins Konzert’ series, the new music festival ‘Schönes Wochenende’ and the program for children and young people.
Burkhard Scheuer, Commercial Director of the Tonhalle Düsseldorf, gave a satisfied summary at the press conference: « In economic terms, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf can look back on a very successful season. The overall occupancy rate for its own events was 88 percent, which roughly corresponds to the pre-corona level of 2019/20. The most popular series are the ‘Sternzeichen’ symphony concerts with the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra. The Tonhalle was recently able to announce a significant record: Never before have so many classical music fans taken out a subscription as for this season. With 5,667 subscriptions, the Tonhalle has thus equaled the previous record set in 2019/20, its most successful season to date. In total, the Tonhalle staged 287 events in the current season, of which around two thirds were its own events and one third were guest events in the rental business.
