Sound workshop Berlin

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The Klangwerkstatt Berlin is a festival for new music that has been taking place every November since 1990 in Berlin in the Kunstquartier Bethanien and other venues. The Klangwerkstatt Berlin is the oldest freely financed festival for contemporary music in Berlin.

history

The festival was founded in 1990 by the composer Peter Ablinger and the music school director Michael Schwinger under the name “Klangwerkstatt - New Music in Kreuzberg” at the Kreuzberg Music School (today Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg Music School). It initially served as a forum for the numerous activities of the music school in the field of contemporary music, u. a. with the ensemble Zwischenentöne, which Ablinger founded at the music school in 1988 and whose first concert in the summer of 1989 sparked the founding of the sound workshop. Inspired by this, ensembles were founded within the music school, such as the Ensemble Experiments by the accordionist and conductor Gerhard Scherer or the ensembles multiphon and Progress by the recorder player Sylvia Hinz . Over the next few years, the festival also opened up to young Berlin ensembles such as Ensemble United Berlin, Kammerensemble Neue Musik Berlin or ensemble mosaik. Since 2012 the festival has been called Klangwerkstatt Berlin - Festival for New Music . The Klangwerkstatt Berlin is one of the most important national festivals for new music. Maximilian Theis described it as “one of the pioneering festivals for contemporary music”, which “not only has its finger on the pulse”, but “rather dares to look ahead into the unknown”. Today the organizer of the Klangwerkstatt Berlin is the Freundeskreis der Musikschule Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg eV As a privately financed festival, the Klangwerkstatt Berlin is mainly funded by public funding and project funds such as private foundations. The cancellation of the 2017 festival due to a lack of funding caused a wide response beyond the borders of Berlin and Germany.

program

The Klangwerkstatt Berlin is dedicated to new music, from concert music (solo to orchestral line-up), improvisation, music-theatrical forms and multimedia performances to sound art. The program focuses on premieres and re-performances of current works. Around 40% of the 1500 or so pieces were premieres. The composers presented range from the next generation (children and young people, students) to the younger generation to established representatives such as Georg Katzer , Reiner Bredemeyer , Friedrich Goldmann or Helmut Zapf . To this day, the program is supported by both young and established professional ensembles, as well as by children's and youth ensembles.

Artistic Director

Peter Ablinger, the founder of the Klangwerkstatt Berlin, was the artistic director of the festival from 1990 to 1992. From 1991 he shared the management with the composer Orm Finnendahl , who, after Ablinger's resignation, led the festival alone until 1995. From 1996 to 1999 the music school director Michael Schwinger was responsible for this task. Then the composer Michael Beil took over the artistic direction until 2008. The composer Stefan Streich has been artistic director of the Klangwerkstatt Berlin since 2009 .

Venues

The first sound workshop took place in Ballhaus Naunynstraße , which remained the festival venue until 2007. From 2000, the Kunstquartier Bethanien was added as a further venue, which is now the main venue. In addition, concerts and performances by the Klangwerkstatt Berlin took place at other locations in Berlin, including a. in the Saalbau Neukölln (today Heimathafen Neukölln ), in the St. Thomas Church , in the Elisabeth Church , in the Sophiensaele , in the Berghain and in the Ballhaus Ost .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. See Frank Kämper: “Outside sight unseen and opened. Explorations with the Ensemble Zwischenentöne ”, in: NZfM Jg. 166 (1999), no. 6, pp. 18–19 ( online , accessed on January 29, 2019).
  2. ^ Documentation Klangwerkstatt Berlin 1989-2016 with a listing of all works and ensembles (PDF) on the website of the Klangwerkstatt Berlin. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  3. Selection list of the Goethe-Institut for institutions of new music in Germany. Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  4. Maximilian Theis: “In tune with the times. Festivals for contemporary music ” , in: concerti (online), August 29, 2017. Accessed on January 25, 2019. See also Gisela Nauck's report on the Klangwerkstatt Berlin 2007: a festival“ that, through its experimental spirit and courage to artistic venture repeatedly surprises (...) but also with a musical quality that need not shy away from comparison with the two big Berlin festivals - ultrasound and MaerzMusik . "In: positions . Contributions to New Music, 74 (February 2008), p. 57.
  5. Press release of the Klangwerkstatt Berlin from July 7th, 2017 “Drohendes Aus for the Klangwerkstatt Berlin” (PDF). Retrieved January 24, 2019.
  6. Messages and reports e.g. B. in new Germany (nd) , Codex flores (Switzerland), pizzicato (Luxembourg); Statements by the Landesmusikrat Berlin , the Society for New Music Germany, the German Orchestra Association ; Radio reports on radio 100.7 (Luxembourg), special radio (Russia). All accessed January 24, 2019.
  7. ^ Documentation Klangwerkstatt Berlin 1989-2016, preface (PDF) on the website of the Klangwerkstatt Berlin. Retrieved January 25, 2019.
  8. See Sybill Mahlke: “Students, teachers, contemporary music. From the Kreuzberg initiative 'Klangwerkstatt' ”, in: Tagesspiegel of March 12, 1991. Or: Frank Hillberg:“ Made in Kreuzberg. Latest products from the 2nd Kreuzberger Klangwerkstatt '91 “, in: taz from March 1st, 1991.