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Museums

Music and museums

All visitors to Leipzig are drawn to St Thomas’s Church, home of the world-famous St Thomas’s Boys Choir and where Johann Sebastian Bach was employed for 27 years as organist and choirmaster. His grave can be seen in the chancel of St Thomas’s. The motets performed every Friday and Saturday by the choir as well as the concerts in front of the statue of Bach just outside in July and August are especially popular. The Bach Museum is situated opposite St Thomas’s Church.

Another regular musical highlight is the Sunday recitals at Mendelssohn House. Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy himself used to live in the building, which now contains the only museum in the world dedicated to the composer.

Two more important centres of music are to be found on the redesigned Augustusplatz: Leipzig Opera House and the Gewandhaus concert hall. The Gewandhaus Orchestra, which dates back more than 250 years, regularly performs in both venues.

Schumann House is dedicated to the memory of Robert und Clara Schumann. Visitors can find out more about the Schumanns’ time in Leipzig, including their many friends and visitors.

Leipzig also hosts a whole string of music festivals large and small. The most prominent ones are doubtless the International Bach Festival in June, the A Capella Festival in April, the Leipzig Jazz Festival in October, and the Mendelssohn Festival in October/November.

Leipzig Museum of Fine Arts owns one of the most prominent collections of art in central Germany. Meanwhile contemporary trends can be viewed and discussed at for example the Leipzig Gallery of Modern Art, opened in 1998. Art-lovers should also make for the Baumwollspinnerei – an old industrial site which has been converted into studios and galleries for young artists cultivating the ‘Leipzig School’.

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Leipzig PORTAL