In his essay, Patrick Hahn pays tribute to Tabea Zimmermann, winner of the International Ernst von Siemens Music Prize 2020, as one of the greatest interpreters of her era. We share the article, which outlines her career and her perspective on music making, with the kind permission of the author and the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation. ...

For Olli Mustonen, an eventful end to the year has been followed by an equally exciting start to the new decade. Born in Finland in 1967, he was awarded the Hindemith Prize of the City of Hanau last November — which honours pianists, conductors and composers — and, for nearly his entire artistic life, has looked to Hindemith as a kind of ideal figure of the universal musician who transcends prefabricated roles. In this interview, Olli Mustonen shares with us thoughts on this role model, an early key musical experience, and two current compositions: the first, the recent and highly successful symphony for tenor, cello, and piano entitled Taivaanvalot, which he premiered with his colleagues Steven Isserlis and Bostridge, and the second, a new sextet, which closes the BTHVN WOCHE Bonn at the end of February, in the 250th year of the composer's birth....

In July 2013, leading violist Tabea Zimmermann was elected chair of the Beethoven Haus Bonn. Since 2015 she has programmed the annual Beethoven Woche festival, which presents an excellent chamber music programme around one of the composer’s works that was written exactly 200 years previously. In her planning for the festival she is supported by journalist and musicologist Luis Gago. Malte Hemmerich met the two programme planners as well as the Beethoven Haus director Malte Boecker in Berlin, speaking with them about the 2020 edition of the festival, which marks Tabea Zimmermann’s last edition as Artistic Director, and is the crowning achievement of her time there....

Just back from a highly successful European tour that included stops at the Wiener Konzerthaus, the Luxembourg Philharmonic, and the Elbphilharmonie, the Ural Philharmonic Orchestra celebrated their next highlight of the season in Ekaterinburg: beginning in late November, the Eurasia Festival once again brought international artists to the city on the Urals. Yekaterinburg’s rich cultural scene has long been evident in the diverse activities of the Ural Philharmonic and the Sverdlovsk Philharmonic Orchestra and will soon become even more apparent with the construction of a new building. The planning phase of Yekaterinburg’s new concert hall was accompanied by a symposium organized by karsten witt musik management, which featured, among others, Christoph Lieben-Seutter and Matthias Naske, in a panel discussion moderated by Karsten Witt and Per Erik Veng, where they discussed the demands and prospects raised by the building’s construction....

For her pioneering work as a contemporary interpreter of the Noh theatre tradition, Ryoko Aoki was awarded the Japan Arts Foundation’s Creative Tradition Prize in early November. The Noh actress and singer – who has performed works such as Toshio Hosokawa's Futari Shizuka and Peter Eötvös' Secret Kiss on stages the world over – incorporates into her performances a theatrical culture that, in the past, was largely reserved for male performers. She has interpreted over 50 new works to date, more than half of which were commissioned compositions. For the magazine, she shared with us what led her to this art form, as well as her relationship to Japanese and European cultural traditions....

Our new website now bundles all information about our own concerts. For the launch date, these include concerts in the Bremer Glocke, the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg and last but not least the Berliner Philharmonie, where karsten witt musik management has been regularly hosting the series The Beethoven Experience with Jan Caeyers and his orchestra Le Concert Olympique for two years....