Greetings

Bavaria is a land of science, economic success, political stability – and art!

One of the great events in the calendar of Bavarian culture is the Kissinger Sommer. The organisers have prepared a delightful programme. This year, the focus is on encounters with music from the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary. This cultural area has had a lasting influence on Europe and thus has enriched the whole world. The Kissinger Sommer can offer its music in magnificent venues: the Max Littmann Hall in the Regentenbau and the Rossini Hall with its excellent acoustics are among the most popular concert halls in Europe. It is impossible to predict how Corona will fare next summer. What is certain, however, is that the love of music strengthens people's cohesion even in difficult times.

Dr. Markus Söder
Patron of the Festival, Bavarian Minister-President

It's finally here, the summer.

If you enhance it with an international music festival in one of Europe's outstanding health resorts, it becomes even more: a Kissinger Summer. Alexander Steinbeis is our new artistic director from Berlin. He not only got to know Bad Kissingen, but he felt it and interpreted it musically: With "Vienna. Budapest. Prague. Bad Kissingen" he builds a musical bridge across the epochs of our cosmopolitan spa. We are curious. But we are not staying in our comfort zone. New formats in the fresh air for all are a worthy reminder of the strolling high nobility through our city. Today, exclusivity can also be inclusive. I wish you some unique moments, in all its formats.

Dr. Dirk Vogel
Lord Mayor
 

We are looking forward to a Kissinger Summer in 2022, which holds several new beginnings for us: I once again warmly welcome our new artistic director, Alexander Steinbeis, and am excited about the rich programme he has put together. At the same time, it is also a new beginning after two years of art and culture in pandemic. We all crave music, concerts, singing, the unique feelings that only a wonderful evening full of unique sounds can give us. Particularly uplifting are the sounds we can hear in our Kissinger Sommer venues, first and foremost in the Regentenbau in Bad Kissingen. I would be very happy if we ran into each other at one or the other concert.

This year, our close partners and neighbouring countries, the Czech Republic, Austria and Hungary, will be accompanying us. I have close ties to all three countries, especially close to Austria, which I visit regularly both privately and professionally. I'm sure many of you have such close ties, especially all music lovers. All the more reason for me to eagerly await the musical bridge-building from Bad Kissingen to these three great countries that Alexander Steinbeis is planning for us next year. Perhaps we will go on this musical journey together and discover new things and recognise familiar ones. Will you come along?

Greetings and looking forward to the Kissingen Summer 2022

Dorothee Bär
Chairwoman of the Board of Trustees, MP, Ebelsbach/Berlin

Empress Elisabeth was welcomed to her second stay at a spa in Kissingen in June 1863 with a "Welcome Poem" by a Lviv university professor. Exactly 20 years later, King Ludwig II officially elevated Kissingen to the status of "Bad". Last year, Bad Kissingen was finally added to the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO as a "Major Spa Town in Europe".

On 17 June 2022, the 36th Kissingen Summer will be held under the motto "Vienna. Budapest. Prague. Bad Kissingen". I am particularly pleased and honoured to be able to present to you, dear concertgoers, dear spa guests, dear friends of the Kissinger Sommer, my first festival programme as the new artistic director. Cultural-historical cross-links between Bohemia, Austria, Hungary and Bad Kissingen are the impetus for the festival year 2022, with which we would like to continue the original idea of the Kissinger Sommer, "Europe in Culture".

You can look forward to exciting, diverse and top-class concert programmes, where it is difficult to name highlights. Long-standing festival partners such as the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra are just as much a part of this as the experimental STEGREIF.orchestra, which has completely freed itself from the conventions of concert presentation. You can look forward to this! Rudolf Buchbinder, Isabelle Faust, Lise Davidsen, Alban Gerhardt, Janine Jansen, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Magdalena Kožená, Jan Lisiecki, Kent Nagano, Sakari Oramo, Sir András Schiff, Daniil Trifonov and Frank Peter Zimmermann are just some of the great artists we welcome at our festival. With formats such as the free Prélude concerts, we will let the whole city participate in the Kissinger Sommer on the weekends.

Our extensive programme is only possible thanks to the generous contributions of the city of Bad Kissingen as the festival's sponsor and our equally generous partners and sponsors, first and foremost the Free State of Bavaria, the District of Lower Franconia, the County of Bad Kissingen, the Stadtwerke Bad Kissingen, the Sparkasse Bad Kissingen and last, but definitely not least, our fabulous Förderverein!

Let us now hope that the pandemic situation will have returned to normal by the summer so that you, dear concert-goers, can enjoy a fulfilling festival month! Together with the Kissinger Sommer team, look forward to a colourful and eventful festival in 2022!

Alexander Steinbeis
Artistic Director Kissinger Sommer