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A Vision Realized: Karl-Werner Joerg and 25 years of the Bad Homburg Castle Concerts
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The Bad Homburg Castle Concerts have become a cornerstone of the classical music scene in the Rhine-Main area, a testament to the vision and tenacity of its founder, Karl-Werner Joerg. From a simple thought – “You have to have concerts there” – upon entering the historic Bad Homburg Castle Church in 1998, Joerg has cultivated a unique platform for emerging talent and rediscovered masterpieces.
From Hall Church to Concert Hall
The Castle Church, inaugurated in 1697, de-dedicated in 1908, and renovated in the 1980s, instantly struck Joerg as possessing a special acoustic quality. A musicology and education graduate of Frankfurt’s Goethe University, he recognized “the natural stage” created by the wood-paneled boxes enclosing the raised chancel.He was confident, even then, that “That has to sound good.”
Joerg, who established his agency for cultural communication in Friedrichsdorf in 1991, already had a strong foundation in the music world. He was an experienced concert organizer, organist, choir director, and public relations speaker, with a deep understanding of marketing, sponsorship, and event law. Though, the Castle Church sparked a new entrepreneurial drive. A previous concert series at the church had ended in 1995, prompting Joerg to seek a distinctive concept – a “unique selling point,” as he described it.
Nurturing Conductors and discovering Stars
Research revealed a gap in the rhine-Main area: no concert series dedicated to chamber orchestras. Together, Joerg observed a lack of opportunities for young conductors. This led to the innovative idea of a conductors’ competition, a concept unprecedented in Germany at the time. “That didn’t exist anywhere in Germany at the time; the Solti and Mahler competitions only came later,” joerg recalls.
The competition was intrinsically linked to the establishment of the Chamber Orchestra of the Rhine-Main region, which quickly gained recognition for its high artistic standards. The initial years focused on this core concept, but Joerg was always open to evolution. The series expanded to include song recitals, though attracting a dedicated audience proved challenging. Eventually, the song series evolved into a regular chamber music series with four concerts per season, after struggling to attract a dedicated song audience.
A significant milestone arrived in 2011 with the founding of the Bad Homburg Castle Concerts Foundation. This enabled the purchase of a concert grand piano in 2012,paving the way for a new series featuring master pianists like Matthias kirschnereit,Ewa Kupiec,Herbert Schuch,and Bernd Glemser.
A Passion for Rediscovery
Joerg’s personal highlight over the past 25 years was the 2017 production of Carlo Coccia’s “The Duchess of Guise,” a Huguenot opera forgotten for 230 years. Staged in Neu-Isenburg and Hanau, and performed semi-stagewise in Bad Homburg’s Church of the Redeemer, the production was a financial risk. “It was extremely time-consuming and incredibly expensive, it brought us to the brink of ruin,” Joerg admits, but the emotional impact of hearing the music for the first time in centuries was profound. “When the music, which no one had heard for 230 years, played, he got goosebumps,” he says, revealing a clear passion for unearthing musical rarities.
This passion is driving his latest initiative: the “opera oblita” prize, launching in 2026. Financed by the Isa and Klaus Pöppinghaus Fund of the Bad Homburg Castle Concerts Foundation, the €2,500 prize will recognize soloists and ensembles dedicated to performing “forgotten works.” Joerg recently advised the Oxalis Quartet, recipients of a Schlosskonzerte mentor scholarship, to record string quartets by Offenbach’s Johann Anton André and George Onslow, rather than more familiar pieces, for a CD produced as part of the 2024 Bad Homburg Master Class for Chamber Music.”It was a huge success for the young people. That’s what drives me,” he explains.
The new season in the Bad Homburg Castle Church opens on November 14th at 7:30 p.m. with a performance by the baroque ensemble La Stag
