castle, a festival venue. , a festival venue. In 1974, Father Josef Herovitsch, an opera enthusiast, With
Gidon Kremer searching for a place to develop a chamber music festival, the music loving Herowitsch offered him what he needed: two performing spaces in Lockenhaus. One was in the hall of the preserved medieval castle and the other was in the town's baroque church. Beginning in 1981, Kremer and other musicians began playing chamber music for small audiences in a less commercial, more collegial setting. By 1987, the Lockenhaus festival group included a European tour and a single American concert at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art in
New York City. Kremer wanted to end his involvement with the festival in 1990 because it was an exhausting experience; the festival went through a crisis. Conceived as an intimate gathering of musical friends, it had grown to 30 concerts in two weekends with more than 60 artists. The following year, there was no festival while organizers considered how to proceed. The retooled festival, renamed the Kremerata Musica, began in 1992, but stayed in Lockenhaus. Each festival concentrates on one or two composers. By its 30th anniversary in 2011, the featured music is that of
Franz Liszt. In 2011 Gidon Kremer passed on the artistic direction to the German/French Cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, who has been running the festival since then. Under his directorship the festival is touring again with a small group of artists in venues like the Mozarteum Salzburg, Musikverein Graz, Konzerthaus Wien, Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Schloss Elmau. ==Events==