Event

Project on the theme of the 2024 Year of Science, "Freedom"
in collaboration with the Centre for Asian Transcultural Studies (CATS) and the China School Academy, in partnership with the Heidelberg Academy of Sciences and the "China in Schools!" outreach program of the Confucius Institute at Heidelberg University.

Commissioned works by Ying Wang (world premiere) and Yiran Zhao (world premiere), as well as “Public Opinion Descends Upon Its Demonstrators” by Robert Ashley and motets by Guillaume de Machaut

Comissioned works by Ying Wang (world premiere) and Yiran Zhao (world premiere), as well as "Public opinion Descends upon its Demonstrators" by Robert Ashley and motets by Guillaume de Machaut

The year 2024 is marked by anniversaries of politically significant events, each of which is linked to struggles for freedom, such as the adoption of the Basic Law of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, the fall of the Berlin Wall, and the "Tiananmen Square Massacre" in China in 1989. Freedom is a fundamental prerequisite for the political individual; their participation is characterized by the possibility of communication between the governed and the governing. One form of communication associated with struggles for freedom is music. In China, there is a very long tradition of poets and composers engaging critically with prevailing conditions through their works. Following this tradition, the Chinese composers Ying WANG and Yiran ZHAO will artistically engage with the theme of "freedom" in China through new compositions commissioned specifically for the project, thereby opening up a space for art that, in theory, should exist in China but does not. These new compositions will be juxtaposed with Robert ASHLEY’s Public Opinion Descends upon its Demonstrators (1961) as well as 14th-century motets, each of which deals with the theme of freedom.

SCHOLA HEIDELBERG
ensemble aisthesis
Conductor | Ekkehard Windrich