“Concert on the Green” is a feast of classical music in nature. It will be a weekend permeated with an atmosphere of “love in music, love in nature,” allowing the concertgoers to slow down and truly enjoy a time of fresh air and share an intimate connection through music. This year the festival will maintain its previous format, featuring four concerts of various sizes both day time and evening, at two locations – the Big Stage and the Small Stage – in 2 successive days.

 

 

 

Conductor | Christoph Eschenbach

Violin | Ray Chen

 

SWR Symphony Orchestra

 

 

Christoph Eschenbach is in demand as a distinguished guest conductor with the finest orchestras and opera houses throughout the world, including those in Vienna, Berlin, Paris, London, New York, Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Milan, Rome, Munich, Dresden, Leipzig, Madrid, Tokyo, and Shanghai.

 

He is currently principal conductor designate of the Berlin Konzerthaus Orchestra. In June 2017 Mr. Eschenbach received the title of conductor laureate of the National Symphony Orchestra after serving as music director (2010–17). Other past positions include music director of the Orchestre de Paris (2000–10), The Philadelphia Orchestra (2003–08), NDR Symphony Orchestra (1998–2004), and Houston Symphony (1988–99).

 

He is regularly invited to perform at prestigious music festivals, including those of Salzburg, Prague, Tanglewood, Ravinia, Schleswig Holstein, Rheingau, St. Petersburg, and Granada.

 

 

Ray Chen is a Taiwanese-Australian violinist. He was the first prize winner in the 2008 International Yehudi Menuhin Violin Competition and the 2009 Queen Elisabeth Music Competition and now records on the Sony Masterworks label.

 

With the beginning of the season 2018/19 Teodor Currentzis takes the reigns as the first Principal Conductor of the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart (SWR SO). With the appointment of Currentzis, one of the most internationally popular conductors is now at the helm.

 

 

SWR Symphony Orchestra
The SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart is the result of the merger between the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra (SWR) and the SWR Symphony Orchestra Baden-Baden and Freiburg in September 2016. Although the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart is still relatively new, it has already made its mark. Distinguished lines of musical traditions continued by its two predecessors blend with each other.

 

Since their foundation in 1945/46, high-profiled principle conductors have successfully shaped the SWR orchestras: In Baden-Baden/Freiburg Hans Rosbaud, Ernest Bour, Michael Gielen, Sylvain Cambreling and François-Xavier Roth; in Stuttgart Hans Müller-Kray, Sergiu Celibidache, Sir Neville Marriner, Gianluigi Gelmetti, Georges Prêtre, Sir Roger Norrington and Stéphane Denève.

 

Apart from many performances in SWR’s own series of concerts in Stuttgart, Freiburg and Mannheim, the SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart appears at the Donaueschingen Festival for New Music and the Schwetzingen Festival. The SWR Symphonieorchester Stuttgart has performed at concerts in Vienna, London, Salzburg, Madrid, Munich, Edinburgh, Barcelona, Dortmund, Warsaw, Essen, Basle, Frankfurt and Tallinn, and has been a regular fixture at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, the Rheingau Music Festival, the Heidelberger Frühling, the Festival Acht Brücken in Cologne and the Musikfest Berlin as well as to a tour to China.