Louis Lewandowski Festival 2018

The Louis-Lewandowski-Festival is a music festival for Jewish liturgy and synagogal choral music in Berlin, which has been held annually since 2011. It is dedicated to the reformer of synagogal music Louis Lewandowski (* 1821 – 1894). For five days, choirs from all over the world will guest in Berlin and Potsdam at various venues, including synagogues and churches as well as industrial halls, and will perform works of synagogal music. In addition to the concerts, workshops and lectures will be held on various topics related to synagogal music.

It is thanks to this great reformer of synagogal music that the traditional Jewish prayer service was given its new, then modern form, characterised by the interplay between cantor, choir and organ. In his compositions, Lewandowski combined traditional synagogal singing with modern European musical development. His compositions reflected the newly awakened self-confidence of German Jews in the 19th century and contributed to the spread and growing popularity of Jewish liturgical music worldwide – even beyond the borders of religious currents.