Music & Performing Arts
Germany’s reputation as a musical nation is still based on names like Bach, Beethoven, Brahms, Handel and Richard Strauss. Students from around the world flock to its music academies, music lovers attend world-class festivals like the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth and the Donaueschingen Festival of Contemporary Music.
But other names also define Germany's musical legacy in the 20th and 21st centuries. Karlheinz Stockhausen pioneered in the field of electronic music. Kraftwerk's robotic rhythms transformed pop music and provided some of the building blocks for hip-hop. And newer German artists from Rammstein to Tokio Hotel continue to captivate young audiences around the world with their Teutonic takes on modern rock and unique visual flair.
With some 180 public and 190 private theaters, Germany is also known for having some of the most experimental theatrical and dance productions worldwide. Even small towns boast opera houses, ballet troupes and theaters, all of which contribute to the well-established network of state, municipal, traveling and private theaters.
With over 130 professional orchestras, the Germans are the world champions of orchestra, a fact that reflects their political history. It is, of course, an enormous challenge to preserve this orchestra density.
The World of German Orchestra
What is German music? When you think of it, do you hear strains of Bach, Beethoven, Brahms or Mendelssohn, or the omm-pah-pah of a blaskappelle in a beerhall? Good - you're right on track...but there is so much more! In this occasional column we will cover German artists at the cutting edge of more genres than there are names for.
PopTips
The centers of German musical instrument making lie hidden in two German border regions. The “Musikwinkel” (musical corner) in Saxony and Mittenwald in the Bavarian Alps boast an over 300-year-old tradition of instrument-making. Today, these areas are still important and productive centers.
Instruments Made in Germany
What if you had to choose a pop song to represent the USA and win the hearts and minds of people everywhere in an Olympics of song judged by the common folk? This is the challenge that European countries face every year in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Eurovision
From Bach to Lena: follow us on a brief musical journey through four centuries of seminal moments in German music.
Music in Germany
