Sorbian National Ensemble
The Sorbian National Ensemble , Sorbian Serbski ludowy ansambl , SNE or SLA for short, is the only professional Sorbian dance and music theater in Lusatia and has orchestral, ballet and choir sections. The repertoire focuses on dance theater, music theater, concerts and children's music theater - from traditional Sorbian to contemporary and modern. The SNE is located around the Röhrscheidtbastei at the Friedensbrücke in Bautzen .
As a cultural ambassador for Lusatia , the ensemble has already toured in over 40 countries on 4 continents with around 14,000 guest performances since 1952 - it has made guest appearances on stages such as the Hamburg State Opera , the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden , the Konzerthaus Berlin or the Prinzregententheater Munich , with an overall average Audience utilization of over 80%.
The ensemble is run as a GmbH, whose sole partner is the Foundation for the Sorbian People . It receives over 5 million euros annually from their coffers. This corresponds to around a quarter of the total funding amount available to the foundation.
history
The Sorbian National Ensemble was founded in January 1952 on the recommendation of Domowina as a state ensemble for Sorbian folk culture by the state of Saxony and assigned to the Ministry of Culture of the GDR in 1953 . It received its functional building in the former Bautzen restaurant "Bürgergarten" on Äußere Lauenstrasse. Eastern European art from the arenas served as a cultural and political model. Rehearsals began in 1952, followed by the first public appearance in the Cottbus Theater on December 21, 1952 as part of a festive event organized by the Society for German-Soviet Friendship and the Council of the Cottbus District .
The ensemble has been called the Sorbian National Ensemble since 1990 . His focus is on the Sorbian music culture. The ensemble draws on traditional folk-cultural traditions from all regions of Lusatia , in the form of songs, music, costumes , dance and customs.
Its first members came from the lay movement and were later mostly trained as professional artists. Initially, the main purpose was "to maintain the Sorbian cultural heritage in its classical forms as well as in folk art, to keep it pure and to develop it further."
Opening up, maintaining, developing and spreading the Sorbian musical culture were always the focus; young composers, musicians and singers gained profile in the ensemble. It was artistically influenced by the conductor Jan Bulank , who worked as choir director from 1970–1996, and the Slovak choreographer Juraj Kubánka, who between 1963 and 2008 found new forms of expression for ballet. After the political change of 1989/90, the use of the Sorbian language and the promotion of one's own offspring became more important. From the beginning, professional contacts were established with comparable institutions in Slavic countries, especially in Slovakia and Poland. In 1978 a dormitory with a club restaurant "Wjelbik" was opened in Bautzener Kornstrasse.
The structure of the SNE is determined by the three sections choir, ballet and orchestra. These enable different forms of performance, which correspond to the respective stage conditions. They range from smaller thematic productions to chamber and symphony concerts to so-called gala programs. The ensemble, whose first trips abroad were to Mongolia and Albania in 1954, previously found the focus of its work as “ambassador of the Sorbs” in German-speaking regions outside of Lusatia and abroad. It offered its programs to the organizers - with a portable stage if required - and the program was and is accordingly flexible and variable. From 1957 it took over the performances of the bird wedding under its own direction, which have since taken place regularly in the whole of Lusatia at the beginning of the year. The necessary collaboration with the German-Sorbian People's Theater took place in the 1990s on the basis of a cooperation agreement that had been connecting the two orchestras for a long time. From 2000 onwards, traditional folkloric stage art was supplemented by modern dance theater (partly contemporary ballet, ballet operas based on literary models) and children's and youth productions. A constant practical task of the SNE is the artistic guidance and support of the large Sorbian club choirs such as “Budyšin”, “Lipa” or “Meja”. It also offers observation sessions, seminars and training courses for amateur groups such as the Schmerlitz or Höflein dance ensembles (formerly often together with the House for Sorbian Folk Art). In 1996, market economy criteria required the state institution to be converted into a GmbH, which - as it has been since 1992 - continues to receive institutional support from the Foundation for the Sorbian People. Initially the sole shareholder was the Free State of Saxony, from 1998 the foundation. The SNE has been run as a GmbH since 2012.
By the mid-1950s, the ensemble had reached the initial target strength of 80 choir singers, 24 dancers and 37 instrumentalists. At no time, however, could all positions be filled with trained Sorbs, especially in the orchestra and ballet, German and foreign workers were always involved. After 1990, as a result of budget cuts, the number of employees fell in several steps. Due to structural changes, the orchestra was merged with that of the bilingual Bautzen theater in 1992 to form the Lausitz Philharmonic, so that major works from Sorbian music history could be performed at times. Since then, sound carriers have also been produced. In 1996 the orchestra was dissolved again; Since then, 30 instrumentalists from the SNE have been playing in the Neue Lausitzer Philharmonie based in Hoyerswerda , the ensemble itself kept an orchestra with 26 members. There are also 16 choir singers and 26 dancers (2008). After 2000, the total number of employees had to be reduced from 133 to a good 100 as a result of renewed austerity requirements, and finally to 90 in 2010. At the same time, the next generation is to be brought up to a professional level in an affiliated Sorbian studio.
In the first 50 years of its existence, the ensemble has made over 70 foreign guest appearances in 30 countries, and Sorbian musical folklore was presented at around 9,000 performances.
present
Today the SNE is present at national and international guest performances as well as increasingly in Lusatia. The repertoire includes both folkloric productions (“Naša Hanka w'wěncu steji - Sorbian wedding pearls”) and modern forms of dance (“For Maria - middle of the night”, “We were, we are, we will be”). There are also classical concerts (“symphony concert” etc.) in the repertoire or New Year's and Christmas concerts. The SNE also offers children's productions such as the danced fairy tale “The Secret of the Blue Ball” and “Wedding Dream in the Fairy Tale Forest” or the interactive musical fairy tale “The cunning little fox”.
Intendancy / management
- Jurij Winar (1952–1960)
- Handrij Cyž (1960–1990)
- Detlef Kobjela (1990–1995)
- Měto Benada (Managing Director 1996-2001)
- Wolfgang Rögner (2002-2010)
- Milena Vettraino (2010-2015)
- Diana Wagner (managing director since 2015)
- Judith Kubitz ( Artistic Director since 2018)
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ "At home in Lausitz, on the move around the world". Accessed on January 20, 2020 .
- ^ Sorbian National Ensemble GmbH. Foundation for the Sorbian People, accessed on March 14, 2017 .
- ↑ Hospodarski plan 2016 / Budget 2016. (PDF; 4.1 MB) (No longer available online.) Załožba za serbski lud / Foundation for the Sorbian People, pp. 16, 45 ff. , Archived from the original on August 3, 2016 ; accessed on March 14, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Graphic representation of the planned funding for Sorbian institutions in 2017. (PDF; 409 kB) (No longer available online.) Foundation for the Sorbian People, archived from the original on March 16, 2017 ; accessed on March 14, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ^ M. Thiemann, M. Benada, G. Nagora: Sorbisches National-Ensemble - Chronik . Ed .: Sorbian National Ensemble. Bautzen 2015.
- ^ Sorbian National Ensemble. Retrieved January 20, 2020 .
