Category: Partnerships with Exilarte

© Chris Boyes

Dance band arrangements by members of the Auschwitz Men’s Orchestra played by musicians from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater & Dance under the baton of Oriol Sans.

Monday, May 13, 2024, 8 p.m.
Jewish Museum of the City of Vienna
Dorotheergasse 11
1010 Vienna

The ten short pieces on this program were arranged by Polish political prisoners who were members of the Auschwitz Orchestra. They used popular German hits of the 1930s and 40s – tangos, waltzes and foxtrots arranged and orchestrated for a dance band that played Sunday concerts for the Auschwitz garrison near the villa of Commandant Höss. The resulting manuscripts, which I began researching in May 2016, are stored in the collections department of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum. Occasionally the prisoners signed these manuscripts with their prisoner number, e.g. B. Antoni Gargul, a viola player and Polish soldier (5665), or Maksymilian Piłat (5131), a bassoonist with a conservatory diploma who played in the orchestra of the State Opera and the Baltic Philharmonic in Gdansk after the war.

In the musical realization of these manuscripts for tonight’s performance, we retained the original instrumentation as much as possible and made only very small changes in the event of obvious errors. You hear these works, silent for over 70 years, as close as possible to how they sounded in 1942 or ’43 when they were performed at Auschwitz 1. The lines spoken by our singers are taken from testimonies and interviews with members of the Auschwitz Orchestra conducted in the post-war period.

We would like to thank the Copernicus Institute, the Exilarte Center, Dean David Gier, the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater & Dance, and the Global Tour Fund of the School of Music, Theater & Dance for making this concert possible.

Patricia Hall, 2020

Artists:

Oriol Sans, conductor

Musicians from the University of Michigan School of Music, Theater & Dance

Moderation:

Gerold Gruber

© Parlamentsdirektion/Johannes Zinner

On the occasion of the anniversary of the liberation of the Mauthausen concentration camp, the Austrian Parliament will remember the victims of National Socialism on Friday, May 3, 2024. The event will be accompanied by music from the Exilarte Center and broadcast live on ORF 2.

Friday, May 3, 2024; 11:00 a.m.
Parliament Austria – Federal Assembly Hall
Dr.-Karl-Renner-Ring 3
A-1017 Vienna

Opening words:

Wolfgang Sobotka, President of the National Council

Musical program:

Walter Arlen (1920-2023): Sonnet for violin and piano

Walter Bricht (1904-1970): Intermezzo from Four Pieces for piano, for the left hand (1933)

Wilhelm Grosz (1894-1939): Eastern Jewish folk songs for a singing voice and piano

Artists:

Aleksandra Dimić, vocals
Karla Križ, violin
Anastasija Richter, piano

Link to event here.

We are pleased to present the musical treasures from Exilarte Zentrum as well as the book “Music of Exile – The Untold Story of Composers Who Fled Hitler” (Yale University Press, 2023) by the renowned exile researcher and author Dr. Benjamin Michael Haas will now be presented in New York.

We would like to thank our supporters from the USA: Schirmer – Wise Music Group, American Society for Jewish Music, Hebrew Union College, Heller Museum, Debbie Friedman School of Sacred Music, among others.

Thursday, May 9, 2024,
7:00 p.m.Hebrew Union College
1 West 4th Street (at Broadway)
New York, NY10012

Registration under: info@hmlf.org

Greeting:

Janie Press, Holocaust Music Lost & Found
Gerold Gruber, founder of exil.arte and head of the Exilarte Center of the mdw

In conversation:

Benjamin Michael Haas, author
John Mauceri, conductor

Interpreters:

Theodora Nestorova, soprano
Josipa Bainac, mezzosoprano
Ulrike Anton, flute
Alex Fowler, violoncello
David Hausknecht, piano

About the book:

What happens to a composer when persecution and exile mean that his true music no longer finds an audience? In the 1930s, composers and musicians began fleeing Hitler’s Germany to build new lives around the world. The process of exile was complex: although some of their works were celebrated, these composers had lost their familiar culture and were forced to confront xenophobia and a completely different creative terrain. Others, far less fortunate, found themselves in a kind of internal exile – composing under a ruthless dictatorship or in concentration camps and ghettos. Michael Haas sensitively records the experiences of this musical diaspora. Torn between cultures and traditions, these composers created music that was a synthesis of old and new worlds, some of which are core to today’s repertoire, while others have disappeared into the drawer. From the musicians who were interned in Great Britain as enemy aliens to the brilliant Hollywood compositions of Erich Wolfgang Korngold to the Brecht-inspired theater music of Kurt Weill, Haas shows how these musicians shaped the sound world of the 20th century – and offers a moving documentation of the war’s unpredictable impact on culture.

About the author:

Benjamin Michael Haas, PhD was a record producer and recording manager at Decca and Sony for many years, and was vice president of Sony Classical in NY in 1994/5. He is a multiple Grammy winner and initiated and directed the Decca recording series “Degenerate Music”. From 2002 to 2010 he worked at the Jewish Museum Vienna as a music curator. In 2013, Yale University Press published his book “Forbidden Music – the Jewish Composers Banned by the Nazis.” From 2000 to 2015 he was Director of the Jewish Music Institute at the University of London and in 2015/16 Research Associate at University College London, School of Jewish and Hebrew Studies. Since 2016 he has been a senior researcher at the mdw’s Exilarte Center, which he co-founded.

© VIVA LA MUSICA!

VIVA LA CLASSICA! presents a concert evening with music by ostracized composers: concert on the occasion of Liberation Day.

Tuesday, May 7, 2024; 7:30 p.m.
Polish Academy of Sciences
Boerhaavegasse 25
1030 Vienna

Ticket reservation:
office@vivalaclassica.com / box office on site

Works by:

Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Erich Zeisl, Rosy Wertheim and others.

Artists:

Julitta Dominika Walder, soprano

Mateusz Kasprzak-Łabudziński, violin

Piotr Lato, clarinet

Joanna Sochacka, piano

About the program:

The concert is a memorial to the lives and work of the composers whose works were banned under the Nazi regime and labeled “degenerate art” – a term that was then applied to all art forms banned by the Third Reich. Those affected were persecuted because of their origin, their faith, their gender or their sexual orientation. The ensemble VIVA LA CLASSICA! brings these almost forgotten works back to life in his concert program “Melancholy”. We would like to thank the Landstraße district, the Embassy of the Republic of Poland and the Jewish Museum of Galicia for their support.

© VIVA LA MUSICA!

© Alma Mahler Philharmonie

Sunday, March 10, 2024, 6:30 p.m.
Palais Ehrbar – large Ehrbar Saal
Mühlgasse 28
1040 Vienna

Wednesday, March 20, 2024, 7:00 p.m
VHS Vienna Urania, Dachsaal
Uraniastrasse 1
1010 Vienna

Tickets: www.almamahlerphilharmonie.com

“… my life only took on content when I began to seriously concentrate on music […] – I was completely on my own…” (Hugo Kauder)

The concert will feature music for string orchestra by Eric Zeisl, Hugo Kauder, Julius Bürger, Mieczysław Weinberg and Gideon Klein. You can also enjoy lively music from Fritz Kreisler and Anita Bild. Never-before-heard archive treasures await you.

The Alma Mahler Philharmonic stands up for composers who have been unjustly forgotten. Part of their commitment is the (re)discovery of the music of exiled composers, especially those who were expelled from Germany and Austria during National Socialism and whose music was banned.

The Alma Mahler Philharmonic is a non-profit chamber orchestra consisting of more than 30 young musical talents. The program will be conducted by Clara Bauer Wagsteiner, a graduate of the University of Music and Performing Arts Vienna. The pianist and musicologist Karin Wagner will guide you through the evening with background information and exciting details.

Artists:

Clara Bauer Wagsteiner, conductor

Pouria Oslanou, violin

Günter Haumer, baritone

Alma Mahler Philharmonic Orchestra

Music for string orchestra by:

Anita Bild, Julius Bürger, Hugo Kauder,

Gideon Klein, Fritz Kreisler,

Mieczysław Weinberg, Eric Zeisl

Moderation:

Karin Wagner

© Martin Walz

Fourth piano concerto by Hans Winterberg

Wednesday, February 21, 2024, 7:30 p.m.
Congress Center Baden
Emperor Franz Ring 1,
2500 Baden

Tickets here.

In Romanticism, the wanderer is a symbol of loneliness, the searching outsider and restlessness. Schubert took up this theme in numerous songs, and it also inspired him in his Wanderer Fantasy.

Hans Winterberg was also an outsider and preoccupied with his identity throughout his life, and it is only now, decades after his death, that he is being discovered as an important composer: born into a Jewish family, becoming a Czech citizen, married to a Catholic woman, in Theresienstadt Interned, emigrated to Germany and honored as a Sudeten German, his work has only recently become accessible. We will premiere his Fourth Piano Concerto and discuss its fascinating history in detail in a panel discussion before the concert.

Perhaps Beethoven’s most famous work, his Fifth Symphony, whose main motif is commonly associated with fate, is an ideal complement, leading from Dunkel to a hard-won victory.

© Congress Center Baden

Artists:

Jonathan Powell, piano

Thomas Rösner, conductor

Beethoven Philharmonic Orchestra

Program:

Ludwig van Beethoven: Overture to “Egmont”, op. 84

Franz Schubert / Franz Liszt: Wanderer Fantasy

Hans Winterberg: Piano Concerto No. 4

Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony No. 5 in C minor, op. 67

An event by the Joseph Hellmesberger Institute for String Instruments, Guitar and Harp in Music Education (designated as Alma Rosé Institute for String Instruments, Guitar and Harp in Music Education) under the overall direction of Bettina Schmitt in cooperation with Exilarte. Center for Persecuted Music and the Institute for Music and Movement Pedagogy/Rhythmics and Music Physiology.

Funded by the Gender|Queer|Diversity Call 2022 of the Gender_mdw platform

Friday, January 26, 2024; 6:30 p.m.
Joseph Haydn – Hall mdw-Campus
Anton-von-Webern-Platz 1, 1030 Vienna

Admission free!

The event will be streamed live via the mdwMediathek.

About the program:

On the occasion of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a concert with discussion will take place on the evening before, January 26, 2024 under the title “Erased!? Rediscovery of persecuted female composers during the time of the Nazi regime”. The concert will feature chamber music works by the Nazi regime. Composers Leni Alexander, Anita Bild, Henriette Bosmans, Ursula Mamlok, Ruth Schönthal, Germaine Tailleferre, Vally Weigl, Rosalie Marie Wertheim, who were expelled from the regime, were performed and were selected and rehearsed by project leader, violinist and conductor Bettina Schmitt. At the same time, rhythmic students interpret and movement pedagogy some of these works. In a conversation with the flautist and exile researcher Dr. Ulrike Anton, conducted by colleagues from exilarte, we talk about these rarely performed composers and their artistic work.

In conversation:

Dr. Ulrike Anton, Director of the Arnold Schoenberg Center Vienna
Katja Kaiser, Exilarte Center of the mdw