Summer 2026

The Midsummer Night’s Gala in Grafenegg is one of the most beautiful traditions of the music country Austria. To open the season, the Tonkunstler Orchestra of Lower Austria presents a programme that is as magnificent as it is varied, under their chief conductor Fabien Gabel. It will feature two opera stars celebrating their debuts in Grafenegg: Angel Blue, US soprano whose voice fills big stages all around the world, and one of the leading lyric tenors of our time, Ukrainian-born Bogdan Volkov, who was nominated for the Austrian Music Theater Prize in 2025. The third to enchant the audience will be virtuoso Salzburg cellist Julia Hagen, who impresses with technical brilliance and a fine sense of timbre. The Tonkunstler-Orchestra Lower Austria will provide orchestral splendour together with its chief conductor Fabien Gabel. The diverse programme of orchestral pieces, arias, duets and concertante music, presented with humour and enthusiasm, is an excellent attunement to the anniversary summer at the Wolkenturm.

Immediately following the opening of the summer season in Grafenegg with the lively and festive Midsummer Night's Gala, the «Summer Sounds» series begins: Saturday evenings from 27 June to 8 August will be all about musical diversity. Broadway tunes and the magic of Spanish nights with the Tonkunstler Orchestra, blaring horns from Mozart’s Cuba, the depths and heights of the human spirit with Georg Friedrich Haas and the Grafenegg Academy, violin magic and melodious melancholy with the European Union Youth Orchestra, as well as a brilliant finale with the Philharmonix, will sweeten the summer in Grafenegg and set the mood for the 20th Grafenegg Festival.

In 2026, however, the programme in Grafenegg will also be expanded to include a new concert series: the afternoon concerts, held every Saturday of the festival at 3.30 pm in the Rudolf Buchbinder Hall, will feature music performed in a more intimate setting with optimal acoustics. Thanks to its location and design, the new hall also offers a truly special overall experience, which naturally includes the sweeping views over the castle grounds. 

A new concert hall always means more culture, more music and more opportunities for cultured socialising. In Grafenegg, the Rudolf Buchbinder Hall – an architectural gem that also pays homage to the era of Grafenegg’s first artistic director – is creating an outstanding venue for smaller ensembles – for solo recitals, lieder and chamber music – as well as for the popular introductory talks during the Grafenegg Festival. The new hall now also brings with it a new concert series: the afternoon concerts on the four festival Saturdays.

During the 2026 festival summer, Joyce DiDonato with the ensemble Time for Three, violinist Sergei Dogadin with pianist Daniil Trifonov, Gautier Capuçon with Capucelli, and pianist Alexandre Kantorow will present four exceptional afternoon concerts in the Rudolf Buchbinder Hall. The programme features: a new song cycle by Kevin Puts; music for violin and piano by Sergei Prokofiev and Dmitri Shostakovich, marking their Austrian premieres; colourful and varied arrangements for cello ensemble – and a piano recital featuring works by Frédéric Chopin, Nikolai Medtner and Ludwig van Beethoven.