Plans are well underway for the Johann Strauss year in Vienna in 2025, celebrating the 200th birthday of the King of the Waltz. Find relevant events and activities below.
- Strauss (the son) was born on October 25th, 1825
- Watch this space for 2025 events
- Browse concert experiences* in Vienna
- See also:
Birthday celebrations
(The plaque at the location where Strauss was born in 1825)
Few composers are so intimately associated with one city as Johann Strauss II, who gave Vienna its unofficial anthem: the Blue Danube.
(In the interests of accuracy, I feel obliged to point out that it’s not always blue.)
Anyway, Vienna pays tribute to its musical son in 2025 with a festival year of activities in celebration of his 200th birthday.
I’ll use this page to inform you of relevant news and details of significant events as they cross my desk.
The city has, for example, set up a specialist company (Johann.Strauss-Festjahr2025 GmbH) to organise the festivities, led by two personalities familiar with Vienna’s music scene.
(Roland Geyer (right), the former director of the Theater an der Wien, supervises the artistic side of things. Simon Posch, director of Vienna’s Haus der Musik, takes charge of the business side of things. That river you see out the window is actually an arm of the “Blue” Danube; press photo © Niko Havranek)
Plans?
Strauss 2025 has an official website with full programme details as they emerge.
Events and activities will stretch across numerous media and genres, including music, dance, literature, theatre, exhibitions and installations, digital media, science,…the list goes on. Should be excellent.
Official events, for example, broadly fall into three categories:
- PUR: performances of original works
- MIX: fresh and artistic interpretations of Strauss’s work
- OFF: derivations, explorations and the unexpected
Notable highlights
(The Riesenrad makes an intriguing venue)
Just a few of the highlights (among many) from my perspective…
Theatermuseum special exhibition
The life and works of Strauss form the topics of a special exhibition at the Theatermuseum (December 4th, 2024 to June 23rd, 2025). Among the objects expected to appear: the original score for Die Fledermaus.
Talking Fledermaus…
A wide programme around Strauss’s many operettas includes Fledermaus Day on April 5th, 2025 in celebration of his most famous operetta. The MuseumsQuartier will host various activities on that date, including a special performance of the work by the Janoska Ensemble and soprano Daniela Fally.
Look for operetta performances in classic productions as well as new adaptations throughout the year.
I look forward particularly to Director Anna Bernreitner bringing Strauss to the entire city: she puts on an open-air performance of a mobile version of Indigo und die 40 Räuber in each of Vienna’s 23 districts from June 1st to June 23rd, 2025 (a collaboration with the WE ARE WIEN.FESTIVAL.)
(Die Fledermaus premiered at Theater an der Wien back in 1874)
Imaginative spectacles
Two icons of Vienna come together in a co-production between theaternyx* and the Zeitwalzer theater project. Take a journey through four centuries and above Vienna, since the production takes place in the wagons of the famous Riesenrad. Move over Orson Welles, Strauss has arrived.
Contemporary art crafted in light appears in the Stadtpark from March 21st, 2025: media artist Victoria Coeln brings seven female figures from the Strauss operettas to life with the help of augmented reality.
Over to the park in front of the Rathaus, where July 5th, 2025 has numerous different orchestras spread about the area performing open-air Strauss as part of the Summa Cum Laude international youth music festival.
Concerts
Expect plenty of these over and above the usual array in Vienna’s historical venues. For example:
- Christian Thielemann conducts Christiane Karg, Piotr Beczała, and the Wiener Philharmoniker at the Musikverein on March 29th and 30th, 2025 with a Strauss-related programme of music (and song)
Film competition
(Strauss film competition; press photo © Vienna Shorts)
The Vienna Shorts film festival and Johann Strauss Festjahr 2025 are looking for short films with a modern interpretation of Strauss’s most famous waltz (submit an entry by January 5th, 2025).
The best shorts will be presented at a gala event and played as part of the 2025 Rathausplatz Film Festival.
Singing competition
The first major announcement on the official side was a singing competition organised together with Munich’s Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz.
Those with an affinity for operetta and all that participating in such productions demands had the chance to win significant prizes…and an opportunity to perform in a special May 8th, 2024 concert in Vienna.
(Press photo © Lena Zotti)
That concert took place at the MuTh concert venue, with tickets available for the public. Twelve finalists performed with the Strauss Festival Orchester with the Top 3 places going to Friederike Meinke, Verena Tranker, and Marie-Dominique Ryckmanns.
Get closer to Strauss…
Finally, this page lists various locations in Vienna associated with Strauss’s life and music should you wish to follow in his footsteps.