Musiktage Ebern

Ebern and the Composer for a Time

Ebern is a small town in the Haßberge district in Lower Franconia (Bavaria) with just over 7,000 inhabitants and a remarkable historic center. It owes its special connection to classical music to Friedrich Rückert: The poet and universal scholar lived in the Ebern region at times (Schloss Neuses near Coburg, Gut in Burgpreppach) and wrote many of his poems here. This connection gave the Rückert-Ensemble, founded in 2016 by Peter Rosenberg, its name.

Peter Rosenberg and the Rückert-Ensemble

Peter Rosenberg, a native of Romania and long-time 1st concertmaster of the Bamberger Symphoniker, founded the Musiktage Ebern and the Rückert-Ensemble in 2016. His approach: an ad-hoc ensemble that re-forms every year — young musicians from Rosenberg's Romanian networks meet experienced soloists and rehearse a focused program together for a long festival weekend in the Stadtpfarrkirche St. Laurentius.

Program Concept

Each year, works from different eras and styles are combined — almost always with Rückert settings (Mahler, Schubert, Schumann, among others) as the connecting element. In addition, classical repertoire works appear alongside rediscoveries of modern music. In 2026, the anniversary year, works by Ludwig van Beethoven, Anton Webern, and Mieczyslaw Weinberg will be on the program, among others.

The Stadtpfarrkirche St. Laurentius

The venue is the St. Laurentius town parish church in the center of Ebern — a late Gothic hall church with excellent acoustics for chamber music. Its intimate size and historic atmosphere shape the listening experience and deliberately distinguish the Musiktage Ebern from the format of large festivals.

Promoting Young Talent

One of Peter Rosenberg's founding aims was the promotion of young talent. Young musicians — primarily from Romania and Bavaria — are given the opportunity to play in a professional concert context, work on repertoire, and perform for an audience. This mix of established and young artists shapes the unique sound of the Rückert-Ensemble.

A Festival with Profile

Anyone wishing to experience chamber music in a quiet, Lower Franconian small town with a curated program beyond the major festival circuit (Bayreuth Festival, Würzburg Mozart Festival, Nuremberg Klassik Open Air) will find the Musiktage Ebern to be one of Franconia's most distinctive formats. The Haßberge district is also a worthwhile starting point for excursions into the Tafelrunde in den Haßbergen region.