We are delighted to announce the proceeds from our charity evening on the first Sunday of Advent 2025, featuring cabaret artist JÜRGEN BECKER and pianist JACOB KARLZON:

64,760 euros

Many thanks to everyone who contributed to this fantastic result.

With the donations, we will purchase a special ventilator for premature babies as well as various incubators, ECG devices and monitoring monitors. The equipment will be loaded onto trucks in Germany and transported on our behalf by the Blue and Yellow Cross from Cologne directly to children's hospitals in Lviv, Dnipro and Ternopil, where it will be assembled and put into operation.

The daily mental stress caused by the Russian war has led to a sharp increase in premature births and deaths due to a lack of equipment in Ukraine. The replacement equipment now being delivered is urgently needed and can save lives. That makes it so important and valuable.

We wish all eastPLUGGED® guests a peaceful (or more peaceful) 2026 and look forward to further musical experiences with you in the special atmosphere of the Friedenskirche in Ratingen.

The eastPLUGGED® concert year 2026 gets off to a brilliant start with a double concert:

Concert No.1: Percussionist Robert Ikiz is active in at least two musical worlds: his two previous eastPLUGGED® gigs focussed on Scandinavian music, while his LAHZA project, which he will now present together with Turkish guitarist Cenk Erdoğan in the Friedenskirche, is based on southeast-european musical traditions. This programme immediately convinced us, something completely different and yet something very familiar, wonderful harmonious pieces of high recognition characterize this programme, which at the same time provides space for improvisation.

Concert No.2: Spanish pianist Daniel Garcia meets Swiss vocal acrobat Andreas Schaerer (who was last at eastPLUGGED® in 2018 with the acclaimed programme ‘A Novel Of Anomaly’). How does this new duo work together? We were lucky to hear some of their pieces in advance, and the answer is: simply brilliant! Let them surprise you.

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Changes in line-up possible. Exchange and return of reserved seats excluded.

To avoid rubbish, we do not use paper tickets. Access just by name as booked. Free choice of seats.

NO BOX OFFICE   BOTH CONCERTS ARE SOLD OUT

Apart from spontaneous JAM sessions, Vincent Peirani's quintet “Living Being” was the largest eastPLUGGED® band to date.

This pole position is now taken by Norwegian pianist Kjetil Mulelid, who expanded his already excellent quintet with two great musicians to a septet: Trygve Seim will play the second saxophone alongside Sissel Vera Pettersen and trumpeter Mathias Eick will complete the wind trio. Together with percussion [Lars Horntveth], bass [Bardur Reinert Poulsen] and drums [Andreas Winther], all this results in a maximum Norwegian sound for the septet's German premiere. The AGOJA project comprises both melodic and rhythmic compositions by Kejtil, in which the Norwegian roots can be identified at their best, and perhaps you will become inspired by this music to plan your next trip to this wonderful country with its more than 30,000 kilometres of coastline.

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Changes in line-up possible. Exchange and return of reserved seats excluded.

To avoid rubbish, we do not use paper tickets. Access just by name as booked. Free choice of seats.

NO BOX OFFICE

Reservations at 40€/p (incl. drink) only online via the following order form:

The rumors are no longer rumors: Randy Brecker, 5-time Grammy winner, plays at eastPLUGGED®!

SIMON OSLENDER, just 28 years old, has been shaking up the music scene in recent years as a pianist, organist, keyboarder and composer. After his debut in Wolfgang Haffner´s band, his own music is becoming increasingly influential. He tours with his own trio, with Nils Landgren, Steve Gadd, Thomas Quasthoff, Bill Evans, Gregory Porter and many others across the continents.

It's brilliant that, in addition to his performances in international concert halls, he is coming back to Ratingen on 3 June for his third eastPLUGGED® concert, and the fact that this time he is bringing the legendary US trumpeter RANDY BRECKER with him is even sensational.

To kick off their European tour, the quartet, which includes Claus Fischer on bass and Jérôme Cardynaals on drums, will present a completely new and exciting programme, including many pieces exclusively composed by Simon for this project.

You can look forward to another unique eastPLUGGED® concert.

40€/person incl. drink

If you are interested, you can enter your name in the list below and you will automatically receive an email message when online reservation opens.

Regular guests will be given a preferential booking option for eastPLUGGED®63 in connection with their booking for the eastPLUGGED®62 concert.

Amazing!:

The Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra is performing in the amazing acoustic space of the Friedenskirche together with the band of Berlin trumpeter Sebastian Studnitzky. It will be a great evening of music when piano, trumpet and drums unite with the orchestra's string instruments.

The Rheinische Post wrote: "What the Odesa Philharmonic Orchestra has to offer is impressive almost anywhere in the world. Such precision in string arrangements is rarely heard. It is even rarer for a large orchestra to play with such balance of timbres, even in the wildest moments." This fits perfectly with our eastPLUGGED® concept.

Look forward to the first eastPLUGGED® concert with orchestral accompaniment . €40/person including drink.

This concert is also intended to express our solidarity with the cultural creators in Ukraine, who have been severely restricted for years in practicing their profession. We further do hope that the war has come to an end by November at the latest

If you are interested in this concert, you can register your name and eMail online hereinafter and you will automatically receive an email message when online reservation starts.