Board member since 2021

Name of the candidate: Thomas Hummel
Job title: Intendant
Age: 54
Gender: Male
Citizenship/origin: German
Artistic/geographical experience: Music studies / viola player / touring through Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe

Name of the organisation / festival: Usedom Music Festival
Membership category: Individual
Country of the organisation / festival: Germany
Festival art disciplines: Music
Annual turnover: €1.100.000
Number of visitors per edition: 15.000

Motivation: Through 30 years continuous development of our Usedom Music Festival on a German-Polish Baltic Sea island, I have cultivated a deep connection to cross-border cultural diversity and musical excellence. In founding our festival orchestra, the Baltic Sea Philharmonic, I engaged conductor Kristjan Järvi, with whom we have established a new orchestral model. We perform without sheet music, allowing for free interaction on stage, using special sound and light and our orchestra members compose their own music for our tours. As festival ambassadors, we have received acclaim for our performances in renowned European cities such as Berlin, Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Brussels, Stockholm, Vienna, Paris, London, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Zurich, Milan, and many more.

By participating in significant music festivals like the Schleswig-Holstein Musikfestival, Südtirol Festival Meran, Venice Biennale, Ljubljana Festival, Hong Kong Arts Festival, and others, I engage in active exchanges with numerous festival colleagues.

For a special project of our Usedom Music Festival, I have been realising with my wonderful team a week-long exclusive “Residency” in Europe by the New York Philharmonic with Anne-Sophie Mutter at the Peenemünde Museum in 2022, featuring three unique concert programmes and including works by contemporary composers Nina Shekar and Joan Tower, alongside a joint performance with our Baltic Sea Philharmonic.

Since 2013, our festival has been a member of EFA, I have been inspired by the numerous events and encounters. In my term, as a board member of EFA since 2021, I have gained valuable experience through interactions with member festivals on site and am highly motivated to continue contributing to the board of EFA. I am dedicated to supporting young festival managers and will continue to actively support the sustainable initiative "European Festivals Forest ”, to which our festival joined last year.

Furthermore, I aim to champion diversity and sustainability across the artistic and organisational aspects of the festival sector and will work towards attracting new festivals to contribute to the significant work of our European Festivals Association. With a strong passion for bringing people together, I actively aspire to drive innovation, push boundaries, and elevate artistic expressions to inspire continuous development of festivals.

It is a great pleasure for me and my team to host our “Arts Festivals Summit” on Usedom in 2024.