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Orgelfrühling Steiermark

Orgelfrühling Steiermark

The Festival "Orgelfrühling Steiermark" (Organ Spring Styria) takes place annually in spring at various venues in Graz and throughout Styria. The state and federal government, the city of Graz with other Styrian cities and municipalities, the University of Music and Performing Arts Graz, parishes, tourism associations and societies as well as numerous private initiatives are jointly involved in this festival for the organ in its many forms, from traditional cultural assets to modern high-tech computers, from the sacred instrument to the virtuosic stage character.

The program includes solo concerts as well as orchestral, chamber music and crossover projects with the pipe organ or the digital organ at the center. Young talents and young prize-winners present themselves in the Orgelfrühling Steiermark Festival equally next to the best-known soloists in the field, historical musical heritage stands alongside new approaches to transcription and interpretation. Contemporary compositions find their permanent place in the program, new works are created especially for Orgelfrühling Steiermark and the instruments of the ZfO (Center for Organ Research Graz), which through their mobility also allow new venues in Styria to be opened up for the instrument.

Literature and drama form a characteristic focus within the framework of Orgelfrühling Steiermark, which deliberately seeks to engage the organ with texts of world literature. Joint productions with the Graz University of the Arts brought, for example, "Faust," "Schlafes Bruder," "An Offer You Can't Refuse," "Höllenfahrt" and "Der Großinquisitor" to the stage at MUMUTH. In the regions, the festival most recently explored texts by J. W. von Goethe, Thomas Mann, Eveline Hasler and Franz Kafka.

The adaptation of important piano literature, e. g. concertos by Joh. Seb. Bach with organ and orchestra, as well as commissioned works for organ and orchestra show new possibilities of the organ in the concert field.

Springtime puts the "queen of instruments" in a new light, showing its known, but above all its hidden beauty, virtuosity and versatility.
Orgelfrühling Steiermark is an encounter of a colorful audience from different music and cultural scenes. Often there is the possibility to stay together after the concert and exchange ideas over a glass of wine or the like.