Dear Music Friends!

For over a year now the corona pandemic has had us in its grip. And the Morgenland Festival Osnabrück has also had to adapt in many ways: For the summer of 2020 we developed a sort of Morgenland TV, thus making a large part of our programme digitally available. More than 60,000 viewers have watched our channel so far. That was a really exciting experience, for the musicians as well as for the members of the team. At short notice, we then had to cancel the live edition, which was planned for December, as well as two special concerts, which were to take place at the Elbphilharmonie in April this year.

When I was planning the 2021 programme in the autumn of last year I was optimistic and had hoped that we would all be able to live and work without quarantine restrictions this summer. However, the current situation looks slightly different: Under the regulations now in place the transfer of the artists from abroad would have required about 500 days and nights of quarantine and at least 200 PCR tests. This was neither financially possible, nor would it have been fun for any of the participants.
So, in the shortest time possible, we have come up with a new programme. This year’s Festival week will feature exclusively musicians and artists who, at the moment, are living in Germany. Almost all the concerts will take place open-air in the inner courtyard of the Schloss in Osnabrück.

It was quite a special challenge, but also great joy, to develop what will hopefully be the first and last “Corona Live Edition”. Obstacles and restrictions can sometimes even be inspiring. It was the much-acclaimed family spirit of the Festival that helped us out. Over the years we have built up a vast network of friends. Thus, you can experience the Neue Hofkapelle Osnabrück in concert with Wu Wei playing his mouth-blown organ, the Osnabrück Symphony Orchestra with Dima Orsho, the Galilee Strings with Mevan Younes, Mohannad Nasser and Saleem Ashkar, the fantastic voices of Iva Bittovà, Simin Tander and Rahib Lahoud, the first appearance of the Morgenland Youngsters and so much more.

The program is online now!

See you there, soon!

Stay safe and well

Michael Dreyer

P.S. whenever you are missing Morgenland, visit our YouTube Channel