Let’s go on an adventure!

“Off to adventure”, sings the hidalgo, a kind of Spanish knight, in Robert Schumann’s song of the same name. This is the spirit in which HIDALGO has been taking over Munich every year since its first pilot event in 2017 and is growing steadily. It all began with a small, enthusiastic circle of friends—in the last edition of the HIDALGO Festival for Young Classical Music 2022, more than 150 people were involved on and behind the stage.

The musical core of the festival is the art song. HIDALGO has now made a name for itself beyond Munich—with the productions created here, HIDALGO is giving its first guest performances throughout Germany.

The festival has received a great deal of media attention right from the start. “Hidalgo is one of the most exciting young and innovative classical music festivals with a focus on song around the world,” writes Crescendo magazine. “The best up-and-coming singers in the coolest places in town” is how Bayerischer Rundfunk sums up the festival, “classical music dusted off and modernized”, according to Concerti. “A great organizational achievement”, judges the Münchner Merkur. The Abendzeitung experienced the music here “much more intensely than in a normal concert hall”. In 2020, it awarded us the “Culture Star of the Year 2020”. And the Süddeutsche Zeitung observes simply: “Classical music is alive and kicking.”

As guests and as an important addition to our own productions, we invite exciting artists and ensembles who inspire us, are current and bring something completely new to Munich. We handpick formats that break with rules, genres and expectations at a high musical level.

Our trademark—in addition to the interdisciplinary productions—are the unusual locations that we select during the festival period in late summer and fall. For us, the location is a central part of the art experience. We don’t play in a concert hall, but in parking garages, nightclubs or hair salons. In this way, we create our own concert space for an evening. We turn all the senses of the artists and audience to maximum absorption. There is no pattern with HIDALGO. It’s a new path every time, which we all take together for the first time.