New artistic director for Audi Summer Concerts starting in 2019

New concert venues, a diverse
supporting program and distinctive leitmotifs will define the Audi Summer
Concerts from now on. “We are giving our audience an active way to access
classical music with our new festival program and surprising highlights. We are
also bringing music to museums, for instance,” said Melanie Goldmann, Head of
Culture and Trends Communications at Audi. In addition, fans of the summer
concerts will be able to test the festival air from the very start, as this
year’s festival will start off with the popular classical open-air concerts at
Klenzepark.

“It is primarily the artists and
their ideas that give a festival its profile and that make it something
special,” Goldmann said. “So we are very proud to enter into two strong
alliances with outstanding artists.” Next year Lisa Batiashvili, a violinist
born in Tbilisi, will take over the artistic direction for an initial period of
two years. Her tasks will include developing the concept and planning for the
festival. She will also perform concerts herself. “For me, Germany is the land
of superb engineering and musical creations,” enthused Lisa Batiashvili. She
sees commonalities between Audi and classical music in terms of aesthetics and
modernity. Both demand top-class performance and unbeatable quality.

The 2018 festival will open with
Finnish violinist Kuusisto on July 13 together with the internationally
acclaimed Mahler Chamber Orchestra, which will be performing for the first time
in Ingolstadt. This first of two classical open-air concerts is entitled
“Scandinavian Expanse,” in keeping with this year’s “places of longing”
leitmotif. The program includes Beethoven’s Symphony No. 1 and Scandinavian
works by Grieg and Sibelius as well as Finnish folk music. Pekka Kuusisto
himself will host the evening and will also put his electric violin to use.

Kuusisto will also later perform chamber music during
the Audi Summer Concerts 2018. In addition, numerous other international world
stars will also thrill the audience. The program includes a performance by the
Audi Young Persons’ Choral Academy (with Haydn’s “The Creation”) and a guest
performance by the Salzburg Festival. Unconventional concert venues including
the Lechner Museum and the Museum for Concrete Art represent an additional
innovation being incorporated into the festival concept. The complete program
for the Audi Summer Concerts 2018 will be announced by the company in early
March, when ticket sales will also begin.