Michael Wollny is a cerebral artist as defined by the Larousse dictionary, i.e. «a person whose activity consists essentially of thought». Indeed, over the course of a career that first brought him to prominence in the early 2000s, the German musician has been producing an endless stream of highly original and inventive projects. And in doing so he has been driven solely by his inexhaustible curiosity, which has led him to take an interest in all forms of art and musical styles. His recent activities include blending improvisation and György Ligeti alongside Pierre-Laurent Aimard, sharing the stage with the ebullient Joachim Kühn, and surrounding himself with friends to form «supergroups»; and his 2025/26 season as Artist in focus at the Philharmonie features four concerts in a similarly exciting vein.The first will mark the reunion of a quartet at the forefront of European jazz, featuring Nils Landgren, Lars Danielsson and Wolfgang Haffner, for an evening of classics by some of the biggest names in pop and rock. This will be followed by a duet between two masters of the piano, as Michael Wollny joins Kit Armstrong for some virtuoso improvisations, infused with jazz and classical music. For his third concert, he will be performing with his trio and his associates from the Out of Land project, including Vincent Peirani and Émile Parisien. The latter will also be present for the final event of the season, which will focus on imagining, in a mixture of structure and experimentation, what the Bauhaus would have sounded like.Michael Wollny may be a moon child, as the title of one of his solo albums suggests; but we are delighted that he has come down to Earth to share his unique musical universe.