Events

So glad to appear in a choral-symphonic concert again next Sunday, 22 January, performing Brahms’s Schicksalslied, Op. 54, and Nänie, Op. 82, with Vokalsystem Berlin, Enchore, and Berliner Sibelius Orchester, alongside orchestral music by Verdi and Sibelius. This will also be the conducting debut of my dear colleague Johannes David Wolff in the Grand Hall of the Berlin Philharmonie. There are still some tickets left—I’d be delighted to see you there!

It’s been such a pleasure to be an inconspicuous part of the audience and watch Valentin Silvestrov listen to his own pieces being performed on stage. This experience made me feel a proximity of both physical and spiritual nature, a certain unity with the music and its creator, while submerging in that continuous stream of sound, largely devoid of contours and contrasts, which seemed that it might go on eternally. Thank you, Viktoriia Vitrenko, Alexei Lubimov, and Pianosalon Christophori for making this happen just two miles from my place!

Here is a short report from this year’s federal delegate conference of Deutscher Tonkünstlerverband, held on 5 November 2022 and hosted by DTKV Bremen. Confidently chaired by Christian Höppner, the event took place in a collegial and basically productive atmosphere. However, the most important professional topic of the last month, fee standards and fair payment of freelance musicians, was not allowed enough time on the agenda, and the corresponding press release had not been sufficiently coordinated with the DTKV state associations. The delegates and board agreed to schedule another assembly day for the next year in order to enhance content-related discussions. Due to opposed communicative attitudes of the board and some of the state associations, the exchange prior to the conference had been unfavourably unilateral, which meant that the delegates needed to deal with formal and financial issues more than necessary. In addition, it became apparent in some of the ballots that there is still much opposition towards changes and innovations within the association.

Besides the indispensable revision of its structures and communication policy, it would seem desirable that the Tonkünstlerverband developed strategies for a sustainable and member-oriented representation of interests. These should result in significantly increased and professionalised public relations work as well. The new website of the federal association shows some promising approaches in that regard.