Imago Dei Festival
March 29 – April 21, 2025 | Klangraum Krems in the Minorite
Church
For more than a quarter century, the early Gothic Klangraum Krems in the Minorite Church has been home to the Imago Dei Festival. “I think in sounds, not in genres,” says Albert Hosp, the new artistic director, “and the Klangraum suits me perfectly. It has harmony. It is open to all forms of sound. The Gothic pointed arch is a symbol of encounter. In this church, which long since has not been one, every stone is a vessel for spirituality. Over the years, this spirit has been set free, not bound to any denomination.”
The festival opens on the last weekend of March (March 29 and 30) with a unique, multifaceted encounter between eras and religions: in “Israel in Egypt – From Slavery to Freedom,” George Frideric Handel’s oratorio mingles with Jewish and Muslim music.
On the other seven concert evenings, we whisk you away to the enchanting world of the salterio, present an unparalleled string quartet, old and new songs, a Renaissance lute meeting an electric guitar, folk music, and many world premieres. In “Bach tanzt” (Bach dances) performance fuses seamlessly with the music. On Good Friday, Bach returns combined with Hugo Distler’s “Totentanz” in a hymn to transience.
The last concert evening on Easter Monday (April 21) is a tribute to festival founder Jo Aichinger, who would have turned 70 on April 8: an opulent festival finale with a gathering of his companions.
Among the contributors to the festival: Konrad Paul Liessmann, Yair Dalal, Werner Ehrhardt, l’arte del mondo, Franziska Fleischanderl, the Koehne Quartett, Simon Mayer, Monika Hosp, Wolfgang Muthspiel, Hopkinson Smith, Karin Nakagawa, the Konzertchor Niederösterreich (dir. Flora Königsberger and Tobias Grabher), Cecilia Zilliacus, Clemens Wenger, Maja Osojnik, Lena Willemark (festival artist-in-residence).
All concerts are accompanied by talks or readings.
The picture series Distler Totentanz by Herwig Zens is on display.
Paul Leichtfried has created a new, cosmopolitan, and vivid graphic design for Imago Dei.
All programme details are online from December 12.
Venues: Klangraum Krems in the Minorite Church, Minoritenplatz 5, 3500 Krems-Stein. www.imagodei.at
PRESS PHOTOS for download
IMAGO DEI FESTIVAL ARTIST PHOTOS https://celum.noeku.at/pinaccess/showpin.do?pinCode=2025ID_
Nö Festival und Kino GmbH., Minoritenplatz 4, 3500 Krems a.d. Donau, Press contact: Barbara Pluch, barbara.pluch@noe-festival.at, tel: +43 (0)664 60499332
December 2024 version – subject to changes