Johann Strauss celebrates his 200th birthday in 2025 and Vienna honours the King of the Waltz with a year’s worth of activities.
- Strauss (the son) was born on October 25th, 1825
- Events across 2025 at 69 locations
- See below for selected highlights
- Find a Strauss concert* for your trip
- See also:
- Strauss locations in Vienna
- House of Strauss exhibition & concert venue
- The Strauss apartment
Birthday celebrations
(The plaque at the location where Strauss was born in 1825)
Few composers are so intimately associated with one city as Johann Strauss II, who gave Vienna its unofficial anthem: the Blue Danube.
(In the interests of accuracy, I feel obliged to point out that it’s not always blue.)
Anyway, Vienna pays tribute to its musical son in 2025 with a festival year of activities in celebration of his 200th birthday.
I’ll use this page to inform you of relevant news and details of significant events.
Plans & highlights
(The official Johann Strauss 2025 programme publication; press photo © Christian Jobst)
The city set up a specialist company (Johann.Strauss-Festjahr2025 GmbH) to organise the festivities, led by two personalities familiar with Vienna’s music scene.
Roland Geyer, the former director of the Theater an der Wien, supervises the artistic side of things. Simon Posch, director of Vienna’s Haus der Musik, takes charge of the business side of things.
Events and activities take place at 69 locations throughout Vienna and stretch across numerous media and genres: music, dance, literature, theatre, exhibitions and installations, digital media, science,…the list goes on. Should be excellent.
Official events broadly fall into three categories:
- PUR: performances of original works or homages to the man
- MIX: fresh and artistic interpretations of Strauss’s work
- OFF: derivations, explorations and the unexpected
Strauss 2025 has an official website with full programme details, and I list some highlights and other events below as they cross my path.
Highlights
(The Riesenrad makes an intriguing venue)
At the time of writing…
Concerts
Expect plenty of these over and above the usual array of Strauss and Mozart-themed evenings in Vienna’s historical venues. For example:
- A memorial concert for Strauss at the Musikverein on January 19th featuring conductor Oksana Lyniv and the ORF RSO Wien orchestra
- Franz Welser-Möst conducts Christiane Karg, Piotr Beczała, and the Wiener Philharmoniker (also at the Musikverein) on March 29th and 30th, 2025 with a Strauss-related programme of music and song from the operettas
New museum
A Johann Strauss Museum opened in early November, 2024. The permanent display promises a multimedia, immersive and interactive exhibition as a modern tribute to the maestro.
Theatermuseum special exhibition
The life and works of Strauss form the topics of a special exhibition at the Theatermuseum (December 4th, 2024 to June 23rd, 2025). Among the objects expected to appear: the original score for Die Fledermaus.
Talking Fledermaus…
A wide programme around Strauss’s many operettas includes Fledermaus Day on April 5th, 2025 in celebration of his most famous operetta. The MuseumsQuartier will host various activities on that date, including a special performance of the work by the Janoska Ensemble and soprano Daniela Fally.
Look for operetta performances in classic productions as well as new adaptations throughout the year.
I look forward particularly to Director Anna Bernreitner bringing Strauss to the entire city: she puts on an open-air performance of a mobile version of Indigo und die 40 Räuber in each of Vienna’s 23 districts from June 1st to June 23rd, 2025 (a collaboration with the WE ARE WIEN.FESTIVAL.)
(Die Fledermaus premiered at Theater an der Wien back in 1874)
Imaginative spectacles
Two icons of Vienna come together in a co-production between theaternyx* and the Zeitwalzer theater project. Take a journey through four centuries and above Vienna, since the production takes place in the wagons of the famous Riesenrad. Move over Orson Welles, Strauss has arrived.
Contemporary art crafted in light appears in the Stadtpark from March 21st, 2025: media artist Victoria Coeln brings seven female figures from the Strauss operettas to life with the help of augmented reality.
Over to the park in front of the Rathaus, where July 5th, 2025 has numerous different orchestras spread about the area performing open-air Strauss as part of the Summa Cum Laude international youth music festival.
A Strauss marathon of a different kind
The Vienna marathon takes place April 6th, and various Strauss-related activities accompany the runners. For example, participants can join a giant waltz at the start in the hopes of breaking a world record.
Film competition
(Strauss film competition; press photo © Vienna Shorts)
The Vienna Shorts film festival and Johann Strauss Festjahr 2025 are looking for short films with a modern interpretation of Strauss’s most famous waltz (submit an entry by January 5th, 2025).
The best shorts will be presented at a gala event and played as part of the 2025 Rathausplatz Film Festival.
Earlier events
The first major announcement on the official side was a singing competition organised together with Munich’s Staatstheater am Gärtnerplatz.
Those with an affinity for operetta and all that participating in such productions demands had the chance to win significant prizes…and an opportunity to perform in a special May 8th, 2024 concert in Vienna.
(Press photo © Lena Zotti)
That concert took place at the MuTh concert venue, with tickets available for the public. Twelve finalists performed with the Strauss Festival Orchester with the Top 3 places going to Friederike Meinke, Verena Tranker, and Marie-Dominique Ryckmanns.
Get closer to Strauss…
Finally, this page lists various locations in Vienna associated with Strauss’s life and music should you wish to follow in his footsteps.