'Jazz for all' could be the motto for the International Jazz Festival in Sankt Ingbert. While modern jazz is often seen as challenging and inaccessible, the festival in Sankt Ingbert near Saarbrücken takes a light-hearted approach. It showcases innovative jazz at unusual venues – and the musicians are all too happy to incorporate current styles of music and push the conventional boundaries of jazz.

This event, held at Volkswagen's Autostadt exhibition complex in Wolfsburg , started out as an international dance festival in 2003. Contemporary dance is still a key element of the festival today, but there are now also readings, talks, lectures, concerts and matinées. As well as dance ensembles from all over the world, appearances by stars from the world of music such as B.B. King and Sting attest to the high quality and broad spectrum of the Movimentos programme.

From Arnstadt to Weimar : in many towns in Thuringia , you can explore the history of the baroque composer and organ virtuoso Johann Sebastian Bach and his family. The Thuringian Bach Festival highlights the composer's historical legacy in the region by hosting concerts and readings at places where he lived or worked. A special feature of the festival is the Hausmusik day. On the evening before the opening concert, musicians – young and old, professional and amateur – perform Bach's music in a place where it is still very much alive today: in the home.

The Mozart Festival in Augsburg presents striking contrasts between the classical and modern genres. Leopold Mozart, father of the musical prodigy Wolfgang Amadeus, was born in Augsburg in 1710 and the city still honours him today. Since 1952 the Mozart Festival, which includes numerous performances, hosted concerts, public rehearsals and workshops, has commemorated the famous family of musicians who never lost touch with their father's home city.

If you think that all operas are of the classical variety, then come to Munich and have your eyes (and ears) opened. Every two years since 1988, the Munich Biennale has provided a platform for mainly young composers to premiere contemporary operatic works. As well as focusing on originality, the festival's organisers place great emphasis on achieving a broad international mix of contributors. Performances are accompanied by concerts, symposiums and discussion forums with composers.

Munich Opera Festival, founded in 1875, is the longest-running festival of its kind in the world. The Prince Regent Theatre is its central venue and was purpose-built for the Munich festival in around 1900, although additional concerts and performances are held in virtually every corner of the city. The summer festival culminates in a free, open-air staging of 'Opera for all', where more than 10,000 people gather together to enjoy the music on Max-Joseph-Platz square outside the National Theatre.

The Brandenburg summer concerts have, in the past, lured artists and ensembles such as Vladimir Ashkenazy, Barbara Hendricks, the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields and Leipzig's Gewandhaus Orchestra on an outing to the country – with their audiences in tow. For this is a festival where the Brandenburg countryside plays a powerful role. Concerts are combined with castle or village tours; punting trips and steamboat cruises have musical accompaniments. And to get you in the mood for all this culture, there is plenty of coffee and locally made cakes on offer wherever you go!