Plans are already well underway for a 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
- 2025 planning has only just begun, so watch this space
- See also:
- Strauss concerts in Vienna
- Strauss locations in Vienna
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. (Spoiler: I’ve never seen the Danube look blue.)
Vienna plans to pay 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 events as they cross my desk.
So far, the city has set up a specialist company to organise the festivities. Two personalities familiar with Vienna’s music scene will lead the Johann.Strauß-Festjahr 2025 GmbH.
(Simon Posch on the left, Roland Geyer on the right. That river you see out the window is actually an arm of the “Blue” Danube; press photo © Niko Havranek)
Roland Geyer will supervise the artistic side of things.
Geyer is, for example, the former director of the Theater an der Wien, one of Vienna’s opera houses; Strauss’s Die Fledermaus enjoyed its world premiere there back in 1874.
Simon Posch takes charge of the business side of things.
Posch is the director of Vienna’s Haus der Musik. This popular museum of sound and music has a dedicated Johann Strauss II room.
Plans?
Strauss 2025 already has an official website, and recent announcements suggest the 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.
In the meantime, as we await further news, this page lists various locations in Vienna associated with Strauss’s life and music should you wish to follow in his footsteps.