1 Jun– 13 Sep
ConcertNow on
Künstlergarten
1 June – 13 September 2026
June to mid-September, every summer
A summer-long garden bar of live music and readings, in the lee of the Theaterplatz.
ConcertSeries
Orgelsommer
Organ summer
An hour of organ music in the town church on summer Sunday evenings.
Sunday evenings through the summer, 18:00–19:00
6Sep
In 4 days
6 September 2026 · 18:00–19:00 Uhr
About Orgelsommer
On Sunday evenings through the summer the Stadtkirche St. Peter und Paul gives an hour to its organ.
Sitting in the room instead of walking through it
Most visitors walk into this church anyway, for the Cranach altarpiece and for Herder's grave, and they look at it. The Orgelsommer is the alternative: you sit in the building for an hour instead of walking through it, and hear an instrument played properly in the room it was built for.
A serious programme for a town this size
The series sits inside a body of church music that would be notable in a much larger city. The Bachchor Weimar, the Evangelische Singschule and the Ensemble Hofmusik Weimar all work here, cantata services put Bach's church music back into the liturgy it was written for, and the whole of it runs under the town cantor Johannes Kleinjung.
One evening belongs to another festival
Most of these evenings are the standing Sunday hour. One is not: it runs as Orgelsommer PLUS and is the prologue concert of the Güldener Herbst, the early-music festival, under the title Bachs Erben. It is a separate event on a separate and dearer ticket that happens to sit inside the series — the evening of 20 September.
Who actually plays it
Not one house organist all summer. The bench goes to players from outside the town as well as inside it — one of these evenings to an organist from Lucca — and one evening belongs to the organ class of the Hochschule für Musik Franz Liszt, so the conservatory's students get the church's instrument and a real audience for it. The closing concert of the season is played by the town cantor himself.
Dates
- 30 August 2026, 18:00–19:00 Uhr
- 6 September 2026, 18:00–19:00 Uhr
- 13 September 2026, 18:00–19:00 Uhr
- 20 September 2026, 18:00–19:00 Uhr
Orgelsommer PLUS — the Güldener Herbst prologue concert, priced separately from the standing Sunday hour.
- 27 September 2026, 18:00–19:00 Uhr
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21 June, the summer solstice
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10Jul
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One July night, crowning the season
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25 Jul– 8 Aug
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Next date to be announced
Two weeks from late July into early August, every summer
A fortnight of international master classes at the conservatory — and the public gets to sit in on the concerts.
Where
Stadtkirche St. Peter und Paul (Herderkirche)
Stadtkirche St. Peter und Paul — the Herderkirche, on the Herderplatz.
Organiser
Evangelische Kirchgemeinde Weimar
Tickets
10 €, reduced 6 €. The 20 September concert is priced separately: 29 € / 20 €, reduced 24 € / 15 €, and 9 € for under-27s.
Facts checked against the organiser on 29 August 2026
Places and people
Historical figures
Johann Sebastian Bach
1685–1750 • composer • musician • organist
The same programme puts Bach's cantatas back into cantata services, and the Bachchor Weimar is one of the house ensembles: the town he served as court organist still performs him liturgically rather than only in concert.
Historic sites
Herderplatz, 99423 Weimar
The series is the town church's own — the organ, the room, and the hour it is heard in.