|
|
|
|
|
|
|
||
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |||||
|
|||||
|
|||||
|
The Week in Germany: Culture October 26, 2007 Berlin in Lights: Berlin-themed Festival to Illuminate New York’s Carnegie Hall
In its first major international festival, Carnegie Hall is transporting a broad cross-section of the Berlin cultural scene to New York. The “Berlin in Lights” festival will feature music, film and art that reflects the long legacy of the German capital as a cultural center, from Weimar era popular song to today’s electronica trendsetters. Carnegie Hall worked with partners including the German Consulate General New York and the Geothe Institut New York in developing the festival. Carnegie Hall director Clive Gillinson says that he chose Berlin in order to demonstrate how essential culture has been to that city’s regeneration since Germany’s reunification. While the recovery of finance and industry in Berlin has been slow since the fall of the Wall, cultural production in Berlin has flourished and made Berlin into one of the world’s most dynamic metropolises. For that reason, Gillinson explained in Playbill Arts magazine, “Berlin in Lights” will run the gamut of Berlin’s cultural offerings. Philharmoniker to collaborate with Manhattan public school students The centerpiece of the festival, which runs from November 2 -18 will be performances by the renowned Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. While the Philharmoniker customarily do a three concert stint in New York each year, they will hold an eight day residency during “Berlin in Lights”, performing two Mahler symphonies alongside newer pieces and giving several chamber music concerts in smaller ensembles. The festival will culminate in two performances at the United Palace Theater on November 17 and 18 in which a group of 100 middle and high school students from public schools in upper Manhattan will dance as the Philharmoniker perform Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring”. Most of the students are not trained dancers, and many had no exposure to classical music before they began working with British choreographer Royston Maldoom in an intensive eight week program to ready them for the show. The “Rite of Spring Project” is a redux of a successful program implemented by the Berliner Philharmoniker in Berlin in 2003. The 2003 project was documented in the film “Rhythm is It”, which follows Maldoom and the students as they tranform from a disparate group of Berlin youth into a highly skilled dance troupe. From Weill to Jazzanova Max Raabe and his Palast Orchester will make an appearance on November 2 with big band and cabaret from the Weimar era, and HK Gruber will perform music by Hans Eisler and Kurt Weill on November 8. Many aspects of the diverse modern Berlin will also be represented, from the traditional music of the Turkish/Kurdish Nevzat Akpinar Ensemble to a DJ set of smooth European lounge music from Jazzanova at the Guggenheim on November 10. The new music group KNM Berlin will also present a survey of Berlin’s contemporary avant garde with a mini- marathon featuring video and sound installations along with live performance at Zankel Hall on November 10. The festival is hardly limited to music. Among the few elements of Berlin culture that could not be transported to New York, the city’s dynamic architecture will be the focus of a panel discussion at Zankel Hall on November 4. The Museum of Modern Art will show German films about the capital from the past ten years in this year’s “Kino! Berlin” festival running from November 3 through 14.
Links: Carnegie Hall: Berlin in Lights Follow the dancer’s progress on the Berlin in Lights Dance Blog
|
|
More from Germany.info  Newsletters
 Printer-Friendly
Page
Email This Article |
||
|
|||||
|
|||||
