The winter term at my university in Düsseldorf is about to commence, and I am looking forward to be teaching again after the summer break. Furthermore, there will be some additional activities and travels during the following weeks that promise to be intriguing and mind-broadening: the annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Musikforschung in Weimar, the annual conference of the Gesellschaft für Musiktheorie in Lübeck, and the final symposium of the Open Music Academy in Munich. I am particularly excited to be involved in actions of gender equality, support of minorities, and an initiative against abuse of power in the music academia, of which I hopefully will be able to share more news and insights soon.
Music by Cosima
Immensely proud of my daughter Cosima who composed an accomplished solo harp piece at the beginning of the year, named Dreaming Willow (Träumende Weide), which was awarded a first prize in the Berlin Jugend musiziert composition competition. Luckily, it is also playable on the piano with a few decent alterations. I now took the opportunity to record the piece and uploaded it to my SoundCloud page. Hope you have at least as much fun listening as I had while learning and performing the music, and if so, please share and leave an appreciative comment.
New Vocal Delectabilities
I will be appearing on stage with Vokalsystem Berlin again in two marvellous projects. The coming weekend will see the emergence of our interdisciplinary choral concert programme Horizon, comprising music by Raffaella Aleotti, Eric Whitacre, Roxanna Panufnik, and Caroline Shaw. Conductor Johannes David Wolff and pianist Artschi Loyan will be joined by dance collective beljn6 and visual artists Blandine Casen and Marcello Busato. Come and visit us this Saturday, 12 July, 8 pm, or Sunday, 13 July, 6:30 pm, at Kühlhaus Berlin-Kreuzberg! There are still some tickets available at €17 and €12; please refer to the choir’s website.
During the following weeks, I will be involved with other Vokalsystem members in a production of Johann Strauß‘s operetta Die Fledermaus, forming part of this year’s festival Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg. The staging is directed by Georg Quander, and the music is arranged and conducted by Christian van den Berg. The premiere takes place on 2 August, followed by seven more performances through 15 August. If you’re up for a colourful and entertaining evening of musical comedy, please visit the festival’s website for tickets.
Summer Reflections
This has been the most intense university semester I’ve experienced so far. My workload consisted of two half-time music theory positions in Düsseldorf and Dresden, which caused a considerable amount of commuting, and was supplemented by my part-time work as managing director of Tonkünstlerverband Berlin. In addition, I prepared lectures on Ravel and Shostakovich, absolved two job interviews, attended a large number of high school and music school performances of my children, continued with apartment hunting (an ongoing story), and improved and re-organised significant aspects of my private life. Now yearning for the semester break, and looking forward to share the stage with Vokalsystem Berlin again in two choreographical concerts and a delectable operetta production (details to follow soon).
An Own Harp for Cosima
My 14-year-old daughter Cosima passionately loves to play the harp. She started on a celtic harp five years ago and, after successfully participating in the Jugend musiziert competition, recently switched to the concert pedal harp, which enabled her to join the children’s opera orchestra of the Berliner Staatsoper. She also composes, plays the piano, and sings in a girls choir.
Cosima currently practises on a rental harp that we were able to hire from an acquaintance, but it will only be available until September. Most harp dealers and private suppliers wouldn’t offer concert instruments for loan, though, so we now seek to get funding for Cosima’s first own harp to foster her further development and education. That’s why I set up a crowdfunding. We would be delighted if you considered supporting this promising young artist by a donation of your choice!