Germany’s zamus: early music festival
Hires New Artistic Director

Bavarian-Japanese violinist Midori Seiler will assume the role in 2025

Based in Cologne, Germany, the zamus: early music festival is held annually in May to present performances, educational sessions, and concert discussions featuring emerging and professional artists. 

As the festival’s new artistic director, violinist Midori Seiler will take on the event’s artistic programming as part of a three-year rotation from 2025 to 2027.  

Currently a professor of baroque violin at the Folkwang University of the Arts, Seiler will succeed cellist Ira Givol in the role. Having enriched the festival in recent years, Givol will present his last festival edition from May 21–29, 2024.

A longtime member and one of the concertmasters of Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, Seiler served as concertmaster of the Anima Eterna Brugge between 2001 to 2014. 

From 2013 to 2016, she led the Schwetzinger Court Music Academy and has given masterclasses in Brugge, Antwerp, Weimar, Verona, Innsbruck, Zürich, and Stuttgart. Prior to that, she was a professor of baroque violin and viola at the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt. 

In 2014, Seiler was appointed professor for baroque violin and viola at the University Mozarteum Salzburg. In 2017, she returned to Weimar to serve on the faculty of the Franz Liszt Conservatoire.

Her mentors have included Helmut Zehetmair, Sandòr Végh, Adelina Oprean, David Takeno, Eberhard Feltz, Stephan Mai, and Thomas Hengelbrock. Among her accolades include the Saxonian Mozart Prize and an OPUS Klassik award. 

“The board and the managing director of the organizing Kölner Gesellschaft für Alte Musik (KGAM e.V.) and the zamus: zentrum für alte musik köln are delighted to have found a great artist for the zamus: early music festival in Midori Seiler, who will further develop the festival's particularly creative and open profile,” reads the press release. 

“What a pleasure [that] I will be part of the team of the coolest and most unusual festival!” Seiler added. “Thank you very much for allowing me to take over the artistic direction of the zamus: early music festival in the coming years. I’m looking forward to many exciting concerts with wonderful musicians!”