Public celebration and Whitsun Festival
Remembering Pierre Boulez
In 2025 the Festspielhaus will be dedicating another festival with international artists to the composer, conductor, and music educator Pierre Boulez, who would be 100 years old and lived and worked in Baden-Baden for over 60 years up until 2016. "We feel positively obliged to commemorate this outstanding artistic personality and, together with the city of Baden-Baden, the Südwestrundfunk, and the country's music universities, to present a birthday program that points to the future," says Benedikt Stampa about "Pierre Boulez: Matter of Honor."
Public celebration and world-class orchestra
The celebrations commemorating the artist's birthday will extend from the beginning of the year to mid-June 2025. Pierre Boulez will be remembered in a variety of formats, his work for children, young people, and adults discussed, and his musical heritage honored by internationally renowned artists as part of the Whitsun Festival “Presence.” A public celebration on his birthday (26.3.2025) will be held at the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden with free admission.
As part of the Whitsun Festival, the London Symphony Orchestra, the SWR Sinfonoieorchester, the Ensemble Intercontemporain, and the Ensemble Recherche together with the French orchestra Les Siècle and pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard will commemorate Pierre Boulez. The program ranges from the months-long school project Im.Puls to film screenings on the large Festspielhaus stage and an evening featuring music by Frank Zappa, who was friends with Boulez. A photo exhibition by Simone Demandt will provide rare insights into the artist's private world. (Centenary Ring – Film at the Festspielhaus, 23.-26.1.2025; public celebration, 26.3.2025; Whitsun Festival Presence, 31.5.-9.6.2025).