A Hallmark of the DSO

Concert on March 3 2018. Photo: Kai Bienert
For 15 years they have been an established feature of cultural life in the capital and a hallmark of the DSO: the Casual Concerts in the Philharmonie with a lounge and live act. They stand for a young format, a young audience and young conductors. Since they were launched by Ingo Metzmacher in 2007, the Casual Concerts have developed into a tradition of their own. The series will take place for the sixteenth time in the 2022-23 season!
Three concerts in the young, communicative concert format will be played per season in the Philharmonie (see below) – with a free choice of seats and a compact length. The uniform price is moderate: € 20, just € 10 for pupils and students. The dress code is casual, too. The concerts begin later, namely at 8:30 pm, and offer a little more than an hour of musical pleasure. The Philharmonie opens its doors at 7:30 pm. At 8 pm, when the Great Hall is opened, the rush for the best seats begins ...
There is no pre-concert introduction to the Casual Concerts: the conductors themselves present the evening, explaining the works vividly and understandably in dialogue with the soloists, using orchestra examples and then performing them in context.
Casual Concert Lounge

During the second part of the evening, the Casual Concert Lounge invites you to the foyer of the Philharmonie with a live act and DJ. The superb space designed by Hans Scharoun transforms into a club, becoming a place to meet with the evening’s artists – and an ideal meeting place for concertgoers who are still wide awake and want to continue the evening in a relaxed way.
The lounge opens itself up the city’s urban sounds, and, with artists like Brandt Brauer Frick, Leslie Clio, Erobique and Die Vögel, is able to present a respectable line-up of exciting protagonists of the international club and band scene.