4/2017

Goethe-Institut Music Section Newsletter

Dear Music Lovers,

The object of our newsletter is to keep you up to date on the latest Goethe-Institut music projects as well as grants available for your projects. You might also want to browse our selected articles on current aspects of the German music scene.

Your Goethe-Institut Music Section
goethe.de/music

Grants and openings

Foto: Konrad Fersterer

Application deadline 15 February 2018

Montreal: Residency Program for New Music

Applications for a residency in Montreal (15 October–15 December 2018) can be submitted up to 15 February 2018. The object this residency is to promote networking and enduring exchange between composers and performers from Quebec and Germany. Composers of New Music who are based in Germany and have at least two years’ professional experience are eligible to apply.

https://www.goethe.de/ins/ca/en/sta/mon/ver.cfm?fuseaction=events.detail&event_id=21128899

Foto: Aldren Lincoln

Deadline for applications: 15 March 2018

Musicboard Berlin residencies in conjunction with Goethe-Instituts abroad

A new artist-in-residence programme for Berlin pop musicians: in association with the Goethe-Institut, the Musicboard Berlin now offers a two-month residency (4 June – 27 July 2018) at Vila Sul, the Goethe-Institut’s residence in Salvador de Bahia, Brazil. The Musicboard already offers residencies in conjunction with the Goethe-Instituts in Tehran, India and Sri Lanka.

http://www.musicboard-berlin.de/foerderung/stipendien-residenzen

Foto: Waseem Rishmawi/Goethe-Institut Ramallah

Goethe-Institut job offers

Goethe-Institut Ramallah seeks cultural programming coordinator (50%)

The Goethe-Institut Ramallah is looking for a committed trilingual staffer to coordinate our cultural programming with focus on music, theatre and performance art from 1 February to 31 December 2018 (with option to renew). Very good command of German, English and Arabic required. The deadline for applications is 20 December 2017.

International singing competition in Georgia

The Opera Crown

„The Opera Crown“, an international singing competition, will take place for the first time in Tbilisi Opera House in Georgia between 30 April and 5 May 2018. The competition has a distinctly international focus and invites young singers (women in the age range between 21-30 years, men between 22-32 years) to participate. Recordings for the preliminary audition can be submitted between 15 January and 1 April 2018.

http://opera.ge/BalletSeasonDetail_(1).aspx?id=893&gallery=&lang=en-US

Goethe projects

Foto: Antonio Gravante/Colourbox

The latest from Germany’s classical scene

Klassikcast

In November the Goethe-Institut launched the Klassikcast: a half-hour series of monthly podcasts presenting newly released CDs to an international audience as well as an inside look at current developments in the classical and contemporary scene in Germany. The Klassikcast is produced in association with Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting) and available from the 15th of each month in German and English on goethe.de/klassikcast.

Foto: Goethe-Institut Kampala

On tour with Goethe-Institut

Megaloh in East Africa

In October Megaloh and DJ Ghanaian Stallion toured East Africa at the invitation of the Goethe-Institut and various local partners there. They gave concerts and workshops in Kampala (Uganda), Kigali (Rwanda), Harare (Zimbabwe), Nairobi (Kenya) and Kinshasa (Congo). One workshop, filmed by Deutsche Welle, took the two musical artists upcountry to the Nyundo School of Art and Music in the interior of Rwanda (Video in German).

http://www.dw.com/en/megaloh-brings-german-hip-hop-to-africa/a-41358454

Foto: Susanne Diesner

Düsseldorf – Moscow

Persimfans Orchestra

This year, the centenary of the October Revolution, the Tonhalle Düsseldorf with help from the Goethe-Institut brought German orchestra musicians together with the Russian Persimfans Orchestra. What’s special about Persimfans is that they play without a conductor, relying on close eye contact with one another – in keeping with the founding ethos of the original Persimfans Orchestra, created in Moscow in 1922 and disbanded in 1932. In October the conductorless ensemble gave three experimental concerts at the Tonhalle in Düsseldorf; the return visit featured a concert on 14 December at Moscow’s Tchaikovsky Concert Hall.

http://www.3sat.de/mediathek/?mode=play&obj=69286

Foto: Roland Owsnitzki

Goethe scholarship to Berlin Pop-Kultur festival

Pop-Kultur Nachwuchs 2017

Last summer, from 23–25 August, 10 young DJs, composers, singer-songwriters and instrumentalists from developing and emergent countries took part in a young talents programme at the Pop-Kultur Festival in Berlin’s Kulturbrauerei thanks to the Goethe-Institut and the Musicboard Berlin. They also got a taste of the Berlin music scene through individually customized tours, networked with fellow musicians and producers, and got an inside look at the music industry through one-day training sessions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FytOfpkSyE4

contrapunkt: Iceland - New Sounds from the Island

Goethe-Institut/Design: Agentur Rose Pistola

Listen online

Contrapunkt sounds out Iceland

Contrapunkt, a radio format produced by the Goethe-Institut together with Bayerischer Rundfunk (Bavarian Broadcasting) that portrays the music scene in countries far and near, devotes its latest edition to current musical developments up in Iceland, following the tracks of tradition and modernity. Contrapunkt can be streamed on the BR-KLASSIK website.

https://www.goethe.de/en/uun/ver/ver.cfm?fuseaction=events.detail&event_id=21100969

Foto: Agnieszka Krzeminska

International Coproduction Fund

EPA Turned into Music

“EPA Turned into Music”, a project funded by the Goethe-Institut’s International Coproduction Fund, released the resulting album on 30 November. In this project, musical artists Daniel Muhuni (Kenya) and Sven Kacirek (Germany) assessed the damage wrought by the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the EU and East Africa, which has scarcely received any European media coverage. In Kenya, they interviewed people directly affected by the EPA, then edited the videos and added original compositions to the soundtrack. This audiovisual programme was also presented live on tour.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sctVF9PWkUw

Current topics in the music scene

New Music

On the Rise – New Music at the Universities

New Music has had a hard time in the daily cultural life, even if scholars and critics have long canonized it. Universities in Germany are therefore very active in providing students and public with an understanding of this music.

Animation: Cukrowicz Nachbaur Architekten ZT GmbH, Bregenz

Room Acoustics in Concert Halls

Mountain Meets Carton

As an example of modern concert hall architecture, the Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg has proven itself acoustically. But the discussion about the ideal sound continues.

Young Choirs

Sing Along instead of Performing

Traditional German male choirs look pretty old in the twenty-first century. Sing-along formats, however, such as “pack singing” are booming. In any case, Germans’ desire to sing remains unbroken.

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Music Division
musik-newsletter@goethe.de