These concerts mark the beginning of the cooperation with the American publishing house Schirmer/Wise Music, who will publish over 300 works from the archive of the Exilarte Center at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna over the next years.
SPECIAL EVENTS as part of the ORF Long Night of Museums
1) Literary Reading with Music (starting at 7 pm)
In Memory of Käthe Leichter – 80 Years After Her Murder by the Nazis
Opening speech: Mag.a Ulrike Sych, President of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
Käthe Leichter was one of the first leading Austrian social democrats to fight for equal rights of female and male workers. Her letters paint an impressive picture of a courageous woman. In 1939 she was deported to Ravensbrück concentration camp, where she was murdered in 1942. Her sister, the composer and music therapist Vally Weigl, managed to flee to the USA together with her husband, the composer Karl Weigl in 1938.
The well-known actress Christine Ostermayer reads together with Gregorij von Leitis letters from Käthe Leichter and her husband Otto Leichter. The musical framework for this event is provided by works of Vally Weigl and Karl Weigl interpreted by soprano Josipa Bainac and pianist David Hausknecht.
Introduced by: Michael Lahr von Leitis (Lahr from Leitis Academy) and Gerold Gruber (Head of the Exilarte Center)
2.) Book presentation with musicfrom the 1930s (starting at 9 p.m.)
„In-Musik-sein“ – The Musical Situation of the Exile Philosopher Günther Anders
Günther Anders is not only a technology-critical philosopher, he is also the author of writings on the philosophy of art and music. His Theorie der musikalischen Situation is reconsidered in the book „In-Musik-sein“ is presented here with a music-pedagogical intention.
During this event, the singers Melanie Hirsch and Sylvia Khittl-Muhr will interpret together with the pianist Christoph U. Meier works by Ralph Benatzky, Wilhelm Grosz, Friedrich Hollaender, Michael Jary and Robert Stolz. The musical estate of Wilhelm Grosz is located in the archive of the Exilarte Center.
Moderation Panel:
Gerold Gruber (Chairman of the Exilarte Center)
Markus Hirsch (mdw – Institute for Music Education)
Christoph Khittl (mdw – Institute for Music Education)
An mdw cooperation between the Institute for Music Education (IMP) and the Exilarte Center.
3.) Tours through the exhibition (as of 6:30 p.m.)
Fritz Kreisler – A Cosmopolitan in Exile. From Child Prodigy to “King of Violinists”
Life and work of famous violin virtuoso Fritz Kreisler are presented in the new exhibition of the Exilarte Center through photos, scores as well as life and audio documents. When the National Socialists came to power in Germany, the performances of the star violinist were accompanied by disruptions and calls for boycott due to his Jewish heritage. Also his compositions were no longer played. In September 1939 Kreisler immigrated to the USA, where he settled in New York together with his wife Harriet.
TICKETS
Tickets can be bought directly at the Exilarte Center! Exilarte Center at the mdw, Lothringerstraße 18 / 1st floor, 1030 Vienna
Regular: € 15.00 (including VAT) Reduced:* € 12.00 (including VAT) Free entry for children up to 12 years of age * reduced tickets for schoolchildren, students, senior citizens, people with disabilities, military service and Ö1 Club members. Please have the relevant proof ready on site.
The new exhibition at the Exilarte Center, which will be open to the public starting September 17, 2022, illustrates Kreisler’s family history, his time in Vienna and his special ability to communicate with the media (record companies, newspapers, radio) through numerous pictures, musical materials and life documents. His violin style (in connection with the major concertos and the Beethoven sonatas) is also thematized, as are his arrangements and compositional style. Likewise, the historical component of the expulsion by the Nazi regime based on “racial” reasons is shown and – as is already a tradition of Exilarte exhibitions – the inclusion of other exiled and ostracized violin virtuosos and string quartets of the time (Alma and Arnold Rosé, Carl Flesch, Bronislaw Huberman, Ferdinand Adler, Busch Quartet, Rostal Quartet etc.) is addressed.
Fritz Kreisler (Vienna, 1875 – 1962, New York) was first taught by his father before he entered the Conservatory of the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Vienna (today mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna) in 1882, where he studied with Josef Hellmesberger Jr. and Anton Bruckner. At the age of seven, he was the youngest child prodigy at this school. After studying in Paris, he went on a successful tour in the USA together with the pianist Moriz Rosenthal in 1888.
An audition with the Vienna Philharmonic was unsuccessful; nevertheless, he was invited to play as a soloist with the orchestra. After further successes with the Berlin Philharmonic under Arthur (Artúr) Nikisch, one of the most brilliant and lucrative solo careers of the time began. In 1910 Kreisler premiered Edward Elgar’s Violin Concerto, which was dedicated to him.
When the National Socialists seized power in Germany, performances of the star violinist were accompanied by disruptions and calls for a boycott due to his Jewish ancestry. His compositions were no longer played. Kreisler ended all further concert activities in Germany, but continued to live in his villa in Berlin together with his wife and manager, the American Harriet Lies, who maintained a good relationship with the Nazi-Regime. In 1935 Kreisler was awarded the Ring of Honor by the City of Vienna.
With the so-called “annexation” of Austria into Nazi Germany in March 1938, Kreisler’s Austrian passport became invalid. After successful efforts to obtain French citizenship, Kreisler found his way into American exile in September 1939, where he settled with his wife in New York and was naturalized in 1943. Kreisler’s last public appearance was in 1949. After his emigration the star violinist never travelled to Europe again. He died in New York in 1962.
This exhibition will be open as of September 17, 2022.
Free admission!
Exilarte Center of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna
On June 27, 2022 at 5 p.m., the Ukrainian musicologist Prof. Luba Kyyanovska will talk about outstanding Ukrainian musicians and composers who were active in the second half of the 20th century and persecuted by the Stalinist regime.
The lecture will be musically accompanied by singer Zoryana Kushpler and pianist Iryna Nikolayeva.
An event in cooperation with the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs.
The lecture will be given in German.
Monday, June 27, 2022 5 p.m. mdw –University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Lothringerstrasse 18 Franz Liszt Hall (3rd floor) 1030 Vienna/Austria
Admission free!
Wearing an FFP2 mask during the event is recommended.
The Exilarte Center of the mdw will host and organize a symposium on the subject of Exile, Modernism and Hollywood on June 11 & 12, 2022 at the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna/Austria.
SYMPOSIUM EXILE, MODERNISM, and HOLLYWOOD
This symposium seeks to find the seeds to musical Modernism in the cinema of the 1930s and 1940s and evaluate its ultimate influence in film and absolute music. Hollywood became home for a vast diaspora of composers with the advent of sound cinema in the late 1920s. With the rise of Nazism and Bolshevism in Europe, the diaspora widened considerably, primarily by Austro-German exiles. Composers Hanns Eisler and Karol Rathaus had already rejected the late-Romanticism of Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold, while other composers such as Ernst Toch, Hans Salter and Franz Waxman (Wachsmann) had taken the Romanticism template and modified it towards contemporary sound design.
A common experience that greatly shaped the careers of these composers was exile, which scholars have long recognized as a dialectic. It can lead to shattering experiences regarding identity, yet it can also open up new opportunities for expression and communication. In exploring connections between exile composers, Modernism, and Hollywood from the 1930s through the 1940s, this symposium examines what is surely one of the greatest cultural transfers in modern history, when European-trained composers who engaged with modernist ideas often struggled between the desire to achieve success in Hollywood while still being true to their art. Modernism in this symposium consists of a plurality of styles that Hollywood attracted, including but not limited to dodecaphony and atonality.
With the goal of examining the influence of Hollywood more broadly, we also welcome proposals about exile composers who benefited from the Hollywood film industry in other ways but did not necessarily write for film. This group would include such figures as Arnold Schoenberg, Igor Stravinsky, and Ernst Krenek, such as through commissions of works, teaching men and women in Hollywood, and developing social networks with members of the entertainment industry.
The Exilarte Center at the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna in Cooperation with Toccata Classics.
The Theresienstadt composer Hans Winterberg (1901 – 1991) has only been known to the musical world for a few years. The Exilarte Center is largely responsible for the rediscovery of the composer and will publish a large number of compositions in cooperation with the publishing house Boosey & Hawkes over the next few years.
On her second CD with works by Hans Winterberg, the pianist Brigitte Helbig recorded the Toccata, the First Piano Sonata (1936), the Impressionistische Klavier-Suite, the Suite (1956) and Erinnerungen an Böhmen for Toccata Classics. This new CD will be presented on June 9, 2022 at 7:30 p.m. in the Franz Liszt Hall of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. Prof. Dr. Gerold Gruber, chairman of the Exilarte Center, will guide the audience through this exciting evening, where Brigitte Helbig will interpret some of the works she has recorded. Furthermore, Peter Kreitmeir, grandson of Hans Winterberg, will speak about his numerous efforts supporting the work of his grandfather.
CD Presentation: Piano Music by Hans Winterberg (Volume Two), Toccata Classics
Thursday, June 9, 2022 7:30 p.m. mdw –University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Lothringerstrasse 18 Franz Liszt-Saal (3rd floor) 1030 Vienna/Austria
Admission free!
Wearing an FFP2 mask during the event is recommended.
A Project in Cooperation with the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies (Yale University) / Wiener Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies, the Institute for Folk Music Research and Ethnomusicology of the mdw & the Exilarte Center
On May 23, 2022, at 7 p.m. Zisl Slepovitch and his ensemble will present a concert of songs originally sung in villages and towns, in the ghettos and concentration camps across Central and Eastern Europe. The concert will take place at the Franz Liszt-Hall of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna.
Monday, May 23, 2022 7 p.m. mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Lothringerstrasse 18 Franz Liszt Hall 1030 Vienna
Workshop: “Voices of Survivors”
Zisl Slepovitch will also present a hands-on workshop sharing the background of his research and musical production work at the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies at Yale University. In the course of the workshop, Slepovitch will provide an insight into the Archive`s history and collection, methods of ethnomusicological research into testimonies with no personal access to the interviewees (working with tapes); musical restoration cases and methods.
Monday, May 23, 2022 11 a.m. – 1 p.m. University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna Lothringerstrasse 18 Franz Liszt Hall 1030 Vienna
In 2018, the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, along with musician-in-residence D. Zisl Slepovitch and former Hartman fellow Sarah Garibova, began production of an album of songs recalled in some of the more than 4,400 testimonies from survivors and witnesses of the Holocaust in the Archive, held at Yale University.
The 12,000+ hours of recorded material – in over a dozen languages – represent thousands of people whose life stories provide insights into the Holocaust survivors’ experiences both before, during and after World War II. Songs and poems featured in a number of these testimonies, originally sung in villages and towns, in the ghettos and concentration camps across Central and Eastern Europe, convey the history of that period, in a very personal way.
Expelled, persecuted and banned by the Nazi regime – what musical estates are telling us…
On May 20, 2022, the Exilarte Center will represent the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna with several events about the estate of Marta Eggerth and Jan Kiepura during the Long Night of Research.
The son of Jan Kiepura and Marta Eggerth, Marjan Kiepura, himself a pianist and artistic partner of his famous mother, will report on the fate and brilliant careers of his parents in an interview with Prof. Dr. Gerold Gruber (chairman of the Exilarte Center).
Historical film recordings and audio documents from Eggerth/Kiepura can also be viewed and listened to during the event.
In addition, there will be regular guided tours through the exhibition of the Exilarte Center “My Song For You – Marta Eggerth and Jan Kiepura Between Two Worlds”.
The exhibition shows the stage and film careers as well as the musical heritage of these two famous singers. After the so-called Austrian “Anschluss” in 1938, they were forced to turn their backs on Vienna, which the Hungarian soprano and the Polish tenor had initially chosen as their new home. Through scientific research on this important estate, it has also been possible to draw attention to numerous other fates of friends and colleagues of Marta Eggerth and Jan Kiepura who were persecuted or murdered by the Nazi regime.
From 5:30 p.m., Exilarte Center (1st floor) Short tours through the exhibition “My Song For You – Marta Eggerth and Jan Kiepura Between Two Worlds” including trivia on the content of the exhibition
7 p.m., Franz Liszt Hall (3rd floor) Opening: video greeting from Ulrike Sych, rector of the mdw Marjan Kiepura and his wife Jane Knox-Kiepura will report on the interesting life stories of Marta Eggerth end Jan Kiepura. In addition, historical film recordings and audio documents will be shown.
8 p.m., Franz Liszt Hall (3rd floor) Q&A with Marjan Kiepura and Jane Knox-Kiepura
From 8:30 p.m., Exilarte Center (1st floor) further short guided tours & trivia
The Exilarte Center was selected by the WKO to represent Austria at the largest global networking and exchange hub for classical music.
On May 17, 2022, Mag. Ulrike Sych, Rector of the mdw – University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna, will open the presentation of the Exilarte Center in Hannover. Prof. Dr. Gerold Gruber, founder and chair of the center, will present together with vice-chair, Dr. Ulrike Anton, the numerous activities of the Exilarte Center.
The Classical:NEXT is the world’s most important industry meeting and event for global networking of the classical music scene.
Presentation of the Exilarte Center at the Classical:NEXT in Hannover
Tuesday, May 17, 2022, 1:45 p.m. – 2:45 p.m Hannover Congress Center Theodor-Heuss-Platz 1-3 Video Conference Lounge 30175 Hannover
