Viva la Pop

“So don’t stop me now / Don’t stop me / ’Cause I’m havin’ a good time / Havin’ a good time…”
Queen

Who needs bulky electronic gear with a tangled mess of cables when the Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra takes the stage and performs the mega-hits from the charts of recent months and decades as a purely acoustic string reimagining? Nena, Toto, Extreme, McCartney, Mercury, Amy Winehouse, or Rosalía… this is the league that provides violin virtuoso and composer Florian Willeitner with the inspiration he needs for (brace yourself for a superlative) the best song arrangements for string orchestras. As a graduate of the Mozarteum in Salzburg, former first violinist of the vision string quartet, member of the New Piano Trio (their fugue cycle “What the Fugue” was released in 2024), founder of the artists’ collective “Pool of Invention,” creative partner at the Mozartwoche under Rolando Villazón, composer of “The Art of Sonata” at the Mozartfest Würzburg, and a globetrotter with his violin, Florian Willeitner very quickly became a fixture in the Who’s Who of classical, jazz, and world music—and, of course, is also well-versed in pop and rock. “Viva la Pop” celebrates—through the infinite facets of the SKO’s string sound and 100% unplugged—the grand emotions of the greatest live moments from the rock and pop arenas of the 20th and 21st centuries.

Featuring:
Florian Willeitner . Violin & Conductor
Stuttgart Chamber Orchestra

Program:
Nena . 99 Luftballons / Toto . Hold the Line / Van Halen . Jump / Paul McCartney . Blackbird / Queen . Don’t Stop Me Now / Amy Winehouse . Rehab / Extreme . More than Words / Rosalía . Berghain / Bruno Mars . When I Was Your Man / Stevie Wonder . Higher Ground / Robert Schumann . Auf einer Burg
(all pieces arranged for violin and string orchestra by Florian Willeitner)

Artist talk at 7:00 p.m.