Tribute to Helmut Zacharias’ Hamburg Years

The »Magic Violinist« Helmut Zacharias was born in Berlin in 1920 and first performed a Mozart violin concerto on the radio at the age of eleven. His great love, however, was not classical music, but the swing music so frowned upon by the National Socialists. The first record under his own name was released on Odeon in 1941. He went on to write 450 compositions and 1,400 arrangements over the course of a long career. After the war, Zacharias initially played with Coco Schumann in Berlin; in 1948 he moved to Hamburg, where he played with the Nordwestdeutscher Rundfunk and gained widespread recognition in the jazz world. He was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1985. A memorial concert at the Elbphilharmonie featuring well-known artists and young musicians is dedicated to the Hamburg period of the violinist, whose lightness never toppled into kitsch and whose impact extended well beyond contemporary easy listening.

Note on purchasing tickets: because there is limited seating in the Elbphilharmonie, festivalgoers must register for the concerts in the Elbphilharmonie, in addition to purchasing an Elbjazz festival ticket. Elbjazz festival tickets are available at www.elbjazz.com. When you buy your Elbjazz festival ticket there, you can also book a concert in the Elbphilharmonie as part of the same booking process (subject to availability).