Wittenberg Renaissance Music Festival

Wittenberg as a Centre for Early Music

In the state of Saxony-Anhalt, in the district of Wittenberg, the Luther town is not only a place of Reformation but also a small stronghold of historical performance practice. The Wittenberg Renaissance Music Festival (WRMF), founded in 2006, has established itself over twenty years as one of the most respected dates for Renaissance and early baroque music in Germany — especially because it deliberately seeks cross-connections and never becomes museum-like.

2026: Renaissance Kisses Tango

The 21st edition connects two musical worlds that have little in common at first glance: Renaissance music and Argentinian tango. The bridge is the bandoneon — the instrument built in Saxony's Vogtland region, which reached Argentina through waves of emigration and became the epitome of tango there. The second focus: the 400th anniversary of the death of the English lutenist and composer John Dowland, whose melancholic songs and lute fantasies are re-examined by the festival.

Ensembles and Artists

Top ensembles from the international scene will be on stage: lautten compagney BERLIN, Música Temprana, the Wittenberger Hofkapelle, the Praetorius Consort Wittenberg, the ensemble Evas Äpfel. The Argentinian-Dutch musician Adrián Rodriguez van der Spoel, a specialist in early Latin American music, opens the festival. In addition, there will be workshops for tango guitar and tango dance, the parallel choir festival track "Wittenberg Sings", musical city tours, and youth projects.

Atmosphere in the Old Town

Concerts take place in the Castle Church, Town Church, Cranach Courtyard, Town Hall, Castle Hall, and several smaller churches — in an old town that is itself a UNESCO World Heritage site. Those who want to get to know Wittenberg from an unusual side should come in September.