Tango Festival Chemnitz 2025

The festival honors the inventor of the concertina, Carl Friedrich Uhlig, who first presented this instrument with five heads on each side, left and right, in Chemnitz in 1834. Its creation can be located in the former workshop/manufactory about 40 meters from today’s Karl Marx Monument. Carl Friedrich Uhlig and his apprentices – including Carl Friedrich Zimmermann – further developed the concertina. A wider range of tones with multiple rows of buttons and stops enabled a more extensive musical repertoire. The aim of providing an affordable instrument that everyone could play remained the same. Saxony, and in particular Carlsfeld, became a center of instrument manufacturing, and since Heinrich Band in Krefeld gave the concertina its name, the instrument became widespread as the bandoneón. World-famous and associated with Argentine tango is the bandoneón made by Alfred Arnold, known as the “AA” in Carlsfeld, whose sound continues to fascinate and inspire to this day. Uhlig’s core zone of the button/tone arrangement has remained unchallenged to this day. Therefore, with our festival, as part of our Capital of Culture project “Moving Sounds – Concertina & Bandoneon,” we invite you to Chemnitz, the birthplace of the bandoneon.

Our book with enclosed audio CD, From the Concertina to the Bandoneon / Chemnitz – the Cradle of the Bandoneon by Jürgen Karthe, tells the history of the instrument and is available at www.auris-subtilis.de. Festival Tickets €156 for the basic package: all milongas in the afternoon/milongas in the evenings with live bands €192 for the full package: all milongas in the afternoon/milongas in the evenings with live bands and two concerts Wednesday, May 28 11:30 a.m., Inklusives Gymnasium Einsiedel “From the Ore Mountains to Buenos Aires – How Tango Found Its Instrument” Tango Amoratado Concertina and Bandoneon Exhibition Thursday, May 29 – Friday, June 1 at the Visitor Center for the Capital of Culture Chemnitz 2025 Fabrikstraße 11, 09111 Chemnitz