Century of Song
Century of Song is a concert series that took place from 2002 to 2011 as part of the Ruhrtriennale . The idea for this concert series came from Thomas Wördehoff , then head dramaturge of the Ruhrtriennale. Century of Song should celebrate the history of pop song and dedicate itself to the art of the great songwriters . Each project was rehearsed exclusively for two concerts at Century of Song.
Program and participants
The American guitarist Bill Frisell was the musical curator for the English-language projects of the series until 2006 . Among his guests were songwriters such as Rickie Lee Jones , Suzanne Vega , Patti Smith and Elvis Costello .
Bill Frisell and his musicians worked out new arrangements of their most famous songs with the invited guests. The second element of the American series was formed by songs by those songwriters who are particularly important to the invited stars. They interpreted these together with Frisell and his band. For example, Rickie Lee Jones played “ You've Got to Hide Your Love Away ” by the Beatles .
For the European branch of Century of Song, Mathias Rüegg , director of the Vienna Art Orchestra , organized the program according to thematic aspects. So z. B. the evening "Ganz in weiss" the German songs between Friedrich Hollaender and Roy Black . The theme of the Wienerlied , on the other hand, was the event “Vienna, Vienna, only you alone”, at which Gerhard Bronner and Ludwig Hirsch , for example, performed. Some events also had specific artists, such as Kurt Weill or Jacques Brel on the topic.
At the Ruhrtriennale 2006, the American bassist and arranger Greg Cohen succeeded Bill Frisell as music director of Century of Song. Cohen has invited artists such as David Byrne , Joe Henry , Holly Cole , Gianmaria Testa and Laurie Anderson for his six concerts .
In 2006, parallel to the English-language series, there were two concerts dedicated to the subject of "Actors Sing Songwriters". Guests like Katja Riemann , Jan Josef Liefers and Uwe Ochsenknecht used this opportunity to tell their biography and the songs that had a major impact on them.
In 2010 there was a conceptual change in Century of Song . The title was retained, but the content orientation moved closer to the themes of the Ruhrtriennale. In 2010 the director of the Ruhrtriennale 2009–2011, Willy Decker , appointed Christoph Gurk as the new curator of the concert series, before the series was discontinued in 2011.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Press release: Christoph Gurk is curator of the Century of Song series Spirit of Islam. (No longer available online.) In: www.2010.ruhrtriennale.de. June 1, 2010, formerly in the original ; accessed on September 2, 2015 . ( Page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
