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8:00 PM
Record
Concert|A Radio Opera – by Ludwig Abraham and the Ensemble Mocrep
The mostly overlooked style of radio opera, in German "Funkoper", combines a live performance and a simultaneous production of a radio broadcast. In a collaboration between German composer Ludwig Abraham and the American ensemble Mocrep, the different potentials and possible modes of perception of the used media will be put to a test. Four musicians on stage are joined by a narrator or disc jockey that can be heard in the broadcast only.
All artists explore their roles as performers beyond the classical sense. This transatlantic collaboration is particularly interesting, considering the great pieces of this genre – for example the Lindberghflug or later Ozeanflug (The Flight across the Ocean) – which were developed by Kurt Weill, Bert Brecht and Paul Hindemith, all Germans that found at least a temporary home in the US and who were influential in the cultural exchange between Europe and the US.
The research for this piece focused on established cultural connections between the two countries: diverse as the musical footprint of the different refugee waves, dating back to 1848 or the Third Reich, the reminiscences of GIs returning from Europe after the Second World War, the German appropriation of phenomena like skateboarding and rock or the development of techno and house – read electronic music – as a conversation via records and tapes between Düsseldorf, Munich, Berlin and Chicago, Detroit, New York. An additional question for the artists is the one of exile, of escape and how refugees and expatriates are absorbed or rejected, depending on their social or cultural status.
To test the outcomes of this project and to pay homage to the utopian appeal of the "Funkoper" – using the example of Edgar Varèse's idea of a worldwide live broadcast radio opera with participants in several countries – Record will not only be performed in Chicago, but also in Munich in late July 2016.
Ludwig Abraham lives in Germany, develops actions, music, text and pictures, produces and performs in concert halls, theaters and galleries across Europe and America. Focus on music as a performance art, strategies of pop, the idea of noise and disturbance. Studied Arts, Music and Media at the Philipps-University in Marburg, instrumental and electronic composition at the Folkwang University of Arts. Since 2012 part of NEUER TANZ as a performer, composer and sound designer.
Mocrep is a Chicago-based ensemble dedicated to the performance of radical, 21st century music that engages with contemporary culture - aesthetically, socially, and politically. Mocrep specializes in works that not only synthesize music, theater, and performance art, but productively embrace the differences between these mediums. In this way, they hope to expose and explore new possibilities in performance today. This performance will consist of both U.S. and world premieres of works by two young and innovative German composers.
All artists explore their roles as performers beyond the classical sense. This transatlantic collaboration is particularly interesting, considering the great pieces of this genre – for example the Lindberghflug or later Ozeanflug (The Flight across the Ocean) – which were developed by Kurt Weill, Bert Brecht and Paul Hindemith, all Germans that found at least a temporary home in the US and who were influential in the cultural exchange between Europe and the US.
The research for this piece focused on established cultural connections between the two countries: diverse as the musical footprint of the different refugee waves, dating back to 1848 or the Third Reich, the reminiscences of GIs returning from Europe after the Second World War, the German appropriation of phenomena like skateboarding and rock or the development of techno and house – read electronic music – as a conversation via records and tapes between Düsseldorf, Munich, Berlin and Chicago, Detroit, New York. An additional question for the artists is the one of exile, of escape and how refugees and expatriates are absorbed or rejected, depending on their social or cultural status.
To test the outcomes of this project and to pay homage to the utopian appeal of the "Funkoper" – using the example of Edgar Varèse's idea of a worldwide live broadcast radio opera with participants in several countries – Record will not only be performed in Chicago, but also in Munich in late July 2016.
Ludwig Abraham lives in Germany, develops actions, music, text and pictures, produces and performs in concert halls, theaters and galleries across Europe and America. Focus on music as a performance art, strategies of pop, the idea of noise and disturbance. Studied Arts, Music and Media at the Philipps-University in Marburg, instrumental and electronic composition at the Folkwang University of Arts. Since 2012 part of NEUER TANZ as a performer, composer and sound designer.
Mocrep is a Chicago-based ensemble dedicated to the performance of radical, 21st century music that engages with contemporary culture - aesthetically, socially, and politically. Mocrep specializes in works that not only synthesize music, theater, and performance art, but productively embrace the differences between these mediums. In this way, they hope to expose and explore new possibilities in performance today. This performance will consist of both U.S. and world premieres of works by two young and innovative German composers.