In German, ‘Kairos’ can be translated as ‘the right moment’ or ‘the right opportunity’. That is more or less how it felt for Charlotte Oelschlegel, Nina Paul and Louise Engel when they founded the Kairos Collective in 2025. For their first project, the chamber orchestra performed as guests at the Detect Classic Festival and the kultur.farm Groß Pankow in August 2025; this was followed in 2026 by a return invitation to the Detect Classic Festival and a residency at “Ein Ding der Möglichkeit” in Salderatzen.
The Kairos Kollektiv brings together around 20 instrumentalists from across Germany, aged between 25 and 40. What they all have in common is that, in their youth, they were part of various elite musical training programmes: as musicians in renowned ensembles such as the Bundesjugendorchester or the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie, they performed alongside renowned artists in concert halls both at home and abroad. Today, they work full-time in a wide variety of sectors, yet one thing has remained unchanged: their passion for making music together.
In this year’s programme, the Kairos Kollektiv will perform a chamber concert as well as premiere their concert performance “What Moves You?” alongside the dancers Andreas Schmidt and Pascal Schmidt, under the direction of Gregor A. Mayrhofer.