Especially in the last decades, Rothenburg has increasingly opened up to the whole variety of historical and contemporary music styles. Added to this was the founding of an Municipal Music School (1984) and its own city and youth brass orchestra, with which a lasting investment in the musical education of children and young people was made.

The history of Rothenburg’s church music started in the early days of the Reformation. Some of the cantors of the town’s most significant church, the St. Jacob’s Church, were well-known composers and musicians also outside the town walls. The Baroque masters Erasmus Widmann and Franz Vollrath Buttstett are some of them, as well as Georg Falck, who was a composer and conductor, musicologist and researcher in his hometown Rothenburg.

The center of municipal church music has always been the great St. Jacob’s Church. This is mainly due to the Rieger organ, which replaced the old Steinmeyer organ in 1968 and whose powerful, warm sound fills the entire Gothic nave at church services and concerts. Around a hundred concerts, some with top-class soloists and ensembles from Germany and abroad, take place there every year. Current cantor of St. Jakob is Jasmin Neubauer.

Friends of chamber music find in Rothenburg at Kunst Kultur Korn at the Central Garage Korn, which has been converted into a cultural hall, or, on a smaller scale, in one of the numerous events, the opportunity to enjoy sophisticated classic music.

One of the highlights of the musical calendar is the Rothenburg Meisterkonzert, which has been performed by the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra every two years at the end of November in the Reichsstadthalle since 1988. The popular concert Konzert zum Neuen Jahr with the Ansbach Chamber Orchestra, which has been extended to a symphony orchestra, has been an integral part of the cultural calendar for years, and a musical start to the New Year at the end of January.

Ever since the Taubertal Festival was founded, there is also international contemporary live music in Rothenburg ob der Tauber. Since 1995 every year in the middle of August thousands of visitors have been coming to the Eiswiese outside Rothenburg, where they enjoy the rhythm and sounds of electric guitars, keyboards and drums.

At the pub music festival in January, regional and international cover and live bands as well as DJ’s excites the people in town. During the year, there are also 70’s, 80’s and other theme parties, up to rock and jazz events.

The Ambassadors of Music play their concerts on the market square of Rothenburg ob der Tauber. The choirs will follow in the churches of Rothenburg. Award-winning American high-school orchestras also stop off in Rothenburg ob der Tauber on their tour of Europe. In their one-hour concerts they play popular classic pieces but also tunes from Hollywood blockbusters to the best. The students come from all over the US and travel as winners of their respective states. Endstation is traditionally Rothenburg ob der Tauber. The Ambassadors of Music have been coming to Rothenburg ob der Tauber for 48 years. Of course the most visible are the performances of the orchestra at the marketplace. Also worth seeing are the choirs, which often perform in the Franciscan Church and Holy Spirit Church of Rothenburg ob der Tauber in the evenings.