FREDERICKSBURG, TX— The Fredericksburg Music Festival and School will launch its 1st season ‘Music Connects Us’ this summer with an ambitious slate of programming, blending contemporary innovation with classical tradition in one of Texas’s most picturesque cultural destinations.

Running from June 8 to June 21 the 2025 festival presented by TexasCellos will feature more than twelve concerts performed by twenty-five musicians from around the world, most making their Fredericksburg debuts. The season will showcase the beloved Six Suites of Bach, with each suite performed by a different member of the star studded faculty, eight cello recitals—with themes ranging from ‘Jewishness in Music’ to ‘Miniatures’, and ‘Hinges’ exploring the spaces in between, a GRAMMY winning jazz violinist with his band, to an live improvised deconstruction and reconstruction of a Bach Sarabande for solo cello in concert. The festival will conclude with ‘Ode to Joy’ a mass side by side cello choir closing concert celebration featuring the faculty and students of the festival.

Concerts will take place at five historic venues in the heart of Fredericksburg: St Joseph’s Halle, Becker Vineyards, the Marienkirche from 1850, the Auditorium at the Pioneer Museum, and the Admiral Nimitz Historic Ballroom (1855).

Among this year’s headline events is the launch of TexasCelloSchool FREDERICKSBURG, with extraordinary gifted cello students from around the world in a meeting that encourages sharing between great musicians & young aspiring artists from around the world!

The Festival’s repertoire spans seven centuries, with performances of Renaissance-inspired music, Baroque masterworks like Bach’s Six Cello Suites, and contemporary works by composers including Fazil Say, Caroline Shaw, Giovanni Sollima, Mieczysław Weinberg, Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson. Folk music is a prominent theme throughout the concerts, highlighting the motto ‘Music Connects Us’.

Special programming includes ‘Ode to Joy’ a mass cello choir concert featuring Giovanni Sollima’s ‘Note Sconte’ based on Beethoven's Unpublished Pieces and Unused Sketches, and concluding with the Ode to Joy from Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 on June 21, 2025 at the Historic Admiral Nimitz Ballroom (1855).

The Festival will also continue its commitment to youth outreach. Summer Young People’s Concerts—featuring faculty and fellowship students from the festival offer free, family-friendly programming at venues throughout the region.

Kicking off the season is the Festival’s Opening Gala, Principal Cellist of the Houston Symphony explores ‘Jewishness in Music’ June 8 at St Joseph’s Halle, a restored, historic meeting hall in downtown Fredericksburg.

For visitors and music lovers alike, the Fredericksburg Music Festival and School will blend high artistic achievement with the region’s natural beauty and cultural heritage, making it a signature summer destination for classical music. ■