With the motto “BACH – We Are FAMILY”, the Bach Festival Leipzig 2022 recalls a tradition of the widely branched Bach family of musicians.
Every year in June, the city of Leipzig honours Johann Sebastian Bach, who was cantor of St. Thomas' Church here from 1723 until his death in 1750, with the Bach Festival. From 11 to 21 June 2026, the festival presents itself as dialogically as never before with over 200 events under the motto "In Dialogue". The programmatic showpiece is a twelve-part cycle that applies the principle of the good old radio hit parade to the Bach cantatas.
The festival motto celebrates the art of exchange - just as it is alive in Bach's music: voices that talk to each other, contradict each other and yet always come together again at the right time. For the first time in the history of the Bach Festival, the global Bach community has helped to shape a core part of the program and voted for the most popular Bach cantatas in an online poll lasting several months. The top 50 will be presented in twelve concerts - from number 50 to number 1, performed by stars of the international Bach scene such as Philippe Herreweghe, John Eliot Gardiner and Ton Koopman.
A second focus is the anniversary "300 Years of Piano Exercises": Sir András Schiff (piano) and Mahan Esfahani (harpsichord) dedicate themselves to these key works in large cycles on their respective instruments. In keeping with its motto "In Dialogue", the festival is more participatory than ever before. Dialogue concerts and the artistic director's "Maul meets..." series with guests such as Daniel Kehlmann and Harald Schmidt open up new spaces for discussion and exchange. The revival of the "We Are Family Choir" offers enthusiastic amateur singers from all over the world the chance to perform in the Thomaskirche themselves, together with the Lufthansa Orchestra under the direction of Rudolf Lutz.
