In 2027, the International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch enters its 18th year, continuing a success story that has seen it evolve into »the most important venue for the performance and discussion of Shostakovich’s music worldwide« (FAZ, Jan Brachmann, 2020). Founded in 2010 without any financial backing but with the immense enthusiasm of a few music lovers, the festival aimed to create a musical monument to Dmitri Shostakovich in the heart of the Saxon Switzerland nature reserve. It was here in 1960, in the resort of Gohrisch, that the composer wrote his seminal Eighth String Quartet.
This achievement was made possible not least through the commitment of the Staatskapelle Dresden, which has supported this unique festival artistically since its inception. Following the model of the Staatskapelle’s own chamber music series, all artists appearing in Gohrisch agree to waive their usual fees for a symbolic »tailcoat allowance« of just 10 euros. This has certainly not deterred illustrious names from making the trip. On the contrary, stars such as Igor Levit, Gidon Kremer, Elisabeth Leonskaja, Yulianna Avdeeva, the Quatuor Danel, Michail, Vladimir and Dmitri Jurowski as well as Ingo Metzmacher have all performed in Gohrisch, driven by nothing more than their shared devotion to Shostakovich’s legacy.
The festival, which has received funding from the Free State of Saxony since 2019, maintains a close collaboration with the Shostakovich archives in Moscow and Paris. These institutions regularly provide the festival organisers with newly discovered material from the composer’s pen. Consequently, audiences in Gohrisch have enjoyed more than a dozen Shostakovich world premieres in recent years. Many of these were released in 2025 on the Deutsche Grammophon CD »Shostakovich Discoveries«, which received the International Classical Music Award in the spring of 2026.
For the 18th outing, world-class artists have once again agreed to perform over four days in Gohrisch’s »concert barn«. The steadily growing festival community, now comprising visitors from across the globe, can look forward to ambitious programmes that offer unusual and fresh perspectives on Shostakovich.
Another tradition since 2016 is the non-subscription concert given by the Staatskapelle on the eve of the festival. In 2027, conductor Maxim Emelyanychev will set the mood for the upcoming festivities with a programme at the Semperoper featuring Shostakovich’s »Satires«, Op. 109, sung by mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená. This was the work the composer completed just before his journey to Gohrisch in 1960, where his Opus 110, the Eighth String Quartet, followed.
The full programme and list of performers for the 18th International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch will be announced in the spring of 2027.
For information and to book tickets, please visit www.schostakowitsch-tage.de.
In July 1960 the Soviet composer Dmitri Shostakovich, one of the towering figures of 20th century classical music, spent several days in Gohrisch, lying forty kilometres south-east of Dresden and the oldest health resort in the nature reserve known as »Saxon Switzerland«. In the official GDR state guest house he wrote one of his most important chamber music works, the String Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110, a piece which proclaimed in devastating fashion his suffering at the hands of the Soviet regime. The composer’s private papers indicate that this is the only work which he composed outside of the Soviet Union. In 1972 Shostakovich made a second trip to Gohrisch.
In June 2009 a charitable society was founded (»Shostakovich in Gohrisch e.V.«) with the aim of increasing public awareness of the composer’s visits to Gohrisch. With the energy and commitment of its members, the society has now founded a three-day festival to bring Shostakovich’s music back to Gohrisch. The first International Shostakovich Festival Gohrisch will be held in September 2010, exactly 50 years after the composer’s first visit to the resort. This festival will currently be the only annual event on the classical music calendar specially dedicated to the Russian composer.
An initiative of the Staatskapelle Dresden
Three days – three concerts. The organisers decided to base the length of the festival on the time taken by Shostakovich to compose his Eighth String Quartet while staying in Gohrisch from 12th to 14th July 1960. The festival concerts will feature performances of this string quartet and the Chamber Symphony Op. 110a, which is the famous arrangement of the quartet by Rudolf Barshai. In addition, the programme includes discussions with artists and contemporaries of Shostakovich, as well as lectures and guided tours. The »International Shostakovich Prize Gohrisch« will be awarded to persons who have specially dedicated themselves to the study and performance of the works of Shostakovich.
The Staatskapelle Dresden, which helped to initiate the festival and is closely involved in the creative development, will ensure its high artistic calibre – in cooperation with the »Chamber Music« of the orchestra. The Minister President of the Free State of Saxony, Stanislaw Tillich, as well as the former principal conductor of the Staatskapelle and close friend of Shostakovich, Kurt Sanderling, have agreed to act as festival patrons.
Detailed information under www.schostakowitsch-tage.de
