Events

A series of top-class concerts at historically significant locations along the Rhine and yet more than just a music festival: from Sunday 20 July, the chamber music summer camp ‘Musiktage am Rhein’ will bring together around 70 exceptional young talents from all over the world at the Landesmusikakademie in Engers.
Under the direction of Anne Shih, Professor of Violin at the Mainz University of Music, a team of international lecturers will be supervising the young musicians. Individual lessons are offered daily to prepare them for playing in an ensemble. There are also coaching sessions, joint rehearsals and daily concerts at inspiring venues such as Engers Castle, Namedy Castle and the casting hall at Sayner Hütte. Lecturers and course participants perform together with the ‘Mainzer Virtuosi’ ensemble and international guests.
The programme offers the audience a broad spectrum of high-quality, audible music, while the participants can look forward to making music together with like-minded people and gaining concert experience in the land of many great composers.
https://www.musiktage-am-rhein.de/concerts/2025/

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756-1791)
Violinkonzert in D Für, 1. Movement
Noemi Macilenti, Violin

Henry Wieniakwski 
Violín Concerto Nr. 2,
1 mov. : Jeonga Kim
2. mov: Jiahui

Alexander Glasunow (1865–1936)
Méditation, Op. 32
Nadia Sayed, Violine

Fritz Kreisler (1875–1962)
Caprice Viennois, Op. 2
Alban Stutteregger, Violine

Piotr I. Tschaikowski (1840–1893)
Pezzo capriccioso, Op. 62
Yichen Su, Cello

Camille Saint-Saëns (1835–1921)
Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso, Op. 28
Minha Cho, Violine

Pablo de Sarasate (1844-1908)
Carmen Fantasy
Isabella Wang, Violine

In this year's summer work phase, two ensembles are cooperating under the auspices of the Rhineland-Palatinate State Music Council and are dedicating themselves to the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War with Mendelssohn's Lobgesang. The conductor is Katharina Morin, winner of the German Choral Conducting Competition.
The public dress rehearsal will take place on August 14 at 7:30 pm in the auditorium of the Heinrichhaus Neuwied-Engers. Admission is free.

A highlight of the work phase is the performance of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's large-scale symphonic cantata Lobgesang (op. 52). The work, composed in 1840, combines symphonic elements with sacred choral singing and is one of the most important works of German Romanticism. The choral movement “Die Nacht ist vergangen” is particularly impressive, representing hope and renewal. The solo parts will be sung by vocal students from the Mainz University of Music.
Mendelssohn's music was systematically ousted from German concert halls during the Nazi era due to his Jewish origins. The choice of his work is therefore also a conscious musical sign against forgetting. In keeping with the thematic framework, the 120 or so young people involved will also visit the former concentration camp in Osthofen.
The concert program begins with the lyrically intense Impromptu No. 5 for strings by Jean Sibelius, which sets the mood for the main work of the evening.

Trusting in the long-term impact of art, even if the market favours quick results - that is the message of SAGO, the Academy for Poetry and Music. It was founded in 1989 by Christof Stählin, for whom aesthetic positions were always more important than political ones. He created a collegial meeting place for all those who do not fit neatly into the classical, pop and jazz pigeonholes - analogous to odds and ends that ended up in the unused "sago compartment" of old kitchen buffets. Precision of observation and subtlety of musical expression - this is the focus of the school, which has already hosted celebrities such as Judith Holofernes, Eckart von Hirschhausen, Bodo Wartke and Sebstian Krämer. SAGO offers a unique opportunity to work intensively and creatively together for a week.

You can see this for yourself again on Thursday, 4 September at 7.30 pm.

Every year, the graduates are given the task of composing a song on a given theme. The results will be heard in the first part of the concert. In the second part of the concert, the freestyle follows: everyone can show what else they have to offer. The best-known Sago annual task song is probably Judith Holofernes' "Denkmal". The theme of the same name also inspired Bodo Wartke's "Ein Denkmal denkt".

Since Stählin's death in 2015, his long-time assistant Martin Betz and his colleague Matthias Binner have continued to run SAGO. Martin Betz is an author, musician and comedian living in Berlin. In addition to studying historical keyboard instruments, specialising in harpsichord, he has a master's degree in German and musicology. He has received awards including the Esslinger Bahnwärter and Stadtschreiber von Ottendorf. Matthias Binner studied German language and literature and history at the FU Berlin. Even during his studies, he worked professionally as a pianist for well-known theatre, cabaret and show productions. One of his compositions, the operetta "Der Geizhals" - loosely based on Molière - was staged at three German theatres. He has been performing on stage as a singer-songwriter for 18 years and has been a participant in the Sago seminars since 2012. His first solo CD was released in 2015.