Jan Henric Bogen Will Become New Artistic Director of the Kurt Weill Fest

New Artistic Director of the Kurt Weill Fest in Dessau will be Jan Henric Bogen. The 35 years old cultural manager, who studied law and musicology, will program the festival for the first time for its edition in 2020. The Festival was founded in 1993 and takes place each year around the birthday of Kurt Weill on March 2nd in Dessau.

Mr. Bogen convinced the board of the Kurt Weill Gesellschaft (KWG) with his artistic concept of the festival: His programme will center around a contemporary and multi-disciplinary reading of the works of Kurt Weill and his contemporaries. Mr. Bogen wants to both internationalise the festival and strengthen its roots in the region.

Thomas Markworth, President of the KWG, sums it up: „We were looking for a figure with whom the Kurt Weill Fest could continue its path successfully while implementing new impulses. Mr. Bogen very strongly convinced the decision makers that he is the right person for this job."

Currently Mr. Bogen works as Deputy Artistic Director at Opera Vlaanderen in Antwerp and Ghent, Belgium. He states: „I am very happy to be leading such a renowned festival. I want to continue the festival's success and sharpen the festival's profil even more. The ever-so-diverse works of Kurt Weill and his archetypical biography of otherness offer an endless source of inspiration to artists - especially today. I understand myself as an enabler and catalyst. I want to create the best possible conditions for exciting encounters between artists and our audiences."

Jan Henric Bogen will take over the position from an interim team lead by Gerhard Kämpfe which will still organise the festival in 2019.

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