PODIUM Esslingen

It all began with an idea. What if classical music did not only take place in the ivory tower? What if we stopped dividing music into genres, formats and conventions? What if a concert were no longer just a concert, but brought together music with art forms such as dance, theatre, film and animation? What if music actually wanted people to rediscover and reinvent it for themselves, again and again? A kind of music that invites us to rethink old certainties – without imposing new ones. And a cultural institution that takes responsibility for its role in society.

In 2009, a group of young people founded a small alternative chamber music festival: PODIUM Esslingen. Within just a few years, under the motto »Musik wie sie will«, it developed into a multifaceted platform for intelligent innovation in classical and contemporary music. Every year, the PODIUM Festival Esslingen presents visionary productions that demonstrate what undogmatic music-making can look like in the 21st century.

At the end of 2021, violinist, concertmaster and concert dramaturge Joosten Ellée took over as Artistic Director from founder Steven Walter, now Artistic Director of the Beethovenfest Bonn. Under the motto »Laut die Zukunft träumen«, PODIUM has since placed a clear focus on the sociopolitical responsibility of art and culture. From Joosten Ellée’s perspective, it is not only theatre and literature that are political: music, too, is political and must engage with the challenges facing society. With this approach, the Artistic Director builds on his predecessor’s major special project, the fellowship project #bebeethoven, which marked the Beethoven anniversary in 2020 by recalling Beethoven’s revolutionary spirit and offering young artists the unique opportunity to build on that legacy and venture into new territory.

PODIUM Esslingen is a laboratory for experimentation and new approaches. These include MUSIKALISCHE MAHNMALE, a series launched in 2023 featuring sound installations in public spaces that address different aspects of the climate crisis – including perspectives from outside Europe – redefine urban space as a stage and reach new audiences. They also include new concert formats such as STADTTEILKONZERTE and WUNSCHKONZERTE, as well as numerous world premieres, primarily commissioning young, emerging international composers.

Guest performances in Germany and abroad, concert weekends at special locations such as Kloster Bebenhausen near Tübingen, and a dedicated education programme featuring school concerts and mini-concerts in daycare centres are all part of the extensive year-round programme.

In 2023, PODIUM was selected as one of six festivals in Germany to participate in »tuned – Netzwerk für zeitgenössische Klassik«, a programme initiated by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes that aims to provide new impulses for the classical music scene through exemplary projects. Journalist Marie König describes PODIUM’s approach as follows:

»What does the rainforest sound like? What power does water hold? Which voices remain unheard? PODIUM asks relevant questions – and tackles them radically. A rush of sound, experimentation, genre boundaries becoming blurred, horizons expanding, people from a wide range of backgrounds coming together. PODIUM embraces openness, is political, sometimes uncomfortable, always in the service of genuine beauty. It creates its stages in unusual places throughout the city of Esslingen – in old industrial buildings, in churches and outdoors under the open sky – but it also ventures out into the world.«