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Concerto Köln ’s 40th anniversary and another decade of musical discoveries

In 2025, ‘ Concerto Köln ’ turned 40 – and we’re celebrating this not just for a single day, but for a whole decade! With #WeCelebrate, every year until our 50th anniversary we will be dedicating our programme to an outstanding composer or a significant historical event. The aim is to make music not only audible but also tangible – in all its social, artistic and human facets.

For us, historical performance practice means more than simply reconstructing the sounds of bygone eras. We want to know:

  • Under what circumstances was the music composed?
  • Who were the people who accompanied them?
  • What challenges shaped the composers?

This perspective gives rise to fascinating connections with contemporary issues of our time. #WeCelebrate thus takes music out of the museum setting and brings it into the present – vibrant, relevant and accessible to all. Join us in celebrating!

The series kicked off in 2025 with Alessandro Scarlatti – a pioneer of opera and innovator of the concerto grosso. He inspired subsequent composers such as George Frideric Handel, his son Domenico Scarlatti, Francesco Geminiani, Charles Avison and the enigmatic Mrs Philarmonica. This body of work raises questions relating to both copyright and emancipation. Fake news and gender discrimination were around even more than 300 years ago!

In 2026, we will focus on Christina of Sweden (1626–1689): queen, philosopher and patron of the finest music. At her court in Rome, the former queen gathered musicians of the highest calibre: Scarlatti, Corelli, Castrucci presented their latest works there and inspired the founding of the Academia dell’Arcadia, where, over the next two hundred years, artists, scholars and intellectuals were guided by humanist ideals and the dream of a ‘golden age’.

The themes from Christina of Sweden’s life – self-determination, freedom, faith, identity, power and art as a social force – are just as relevant today as they were 400 years ago.

# ‘WeCelebrate ’ is a project by Concerto Köln and is funded by the Ministry of Culture and Science of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia.