Orchestras, concert halls and classical music organizers can confidently enter the coming 2024/25 season, which is already beginning these days. On August 23, for example, the Berlin Philharmonic will open its new season in the Berlin Philharmonie.
“The 2024 music, classical and theater summer was outstanding in many places,” says unisono managing director Gerald Mertens. “Wherever we look in Germany, demand and capacity utilization for many events was record-breaking. The Kissinger Summer achieved 83 percent capacity utilization for the first time. The Heidenheim Opera Festival was 93 percent full, the Munich Opera Festival of the Bavarian State Opera was 92 percent full, the Bad Hersfeld Festival was almost 96 percent full and the Moritzburg Festival was 94 percent full.”
“There is no ‘crisis in classical music’; on the contrary, if the offerings and atmosphere are right, people will come,” says Mertens. “The more creatively, openly and hospitably concert halls and organizers approach their potential audiences in the new season, following the example of the summer festivals, the lower the access barriers, the more likely they are to succeed in retaining listeners as regular audiences and attracting new audience groups. The demand is certainly there,” Mertens is convinced.
