KlangClub#1

A musical theater piece by KlangClub on the theme of friendship

Premiere of KlangClub's musical theater piece on the theme of friendship at the Betriebswerk

For almost a year, young people aged 11-14 have been working on the theme of “friendship” and what it means to them. Not only did the young people come together for the first time as the “KlangClub,” but they also developed the entire content and script themselves together with two professional theater and music educators, Nelly Sautter and Magdalena Erhard. Composer Karola Obermüller also got fully involved with the young people and worked with them to develop the music for this project.

Together with the two ensembles of KlangForum Heidelberg – SCHOLA HEIDELBERG and ensemble aisthesis – the young people will now take to the stage at the Betriebswerk for the first time in November.

“It was and is a matter close to our hearts to implement this project in the way the young people imagine it,” says Dominique Mayr, managing director of KlangForum Heidelberg. And the hurdles were very high. The biggest challenge was financing this project, as traditional foundations were hardly convinced by this innovative approach and the educational work, which caused great astonishment at KlangForum. “The project was on the verge of being abandoned because financial implementation seemed increasingly unrealistic with each further rejection of funding – even though this project actually encompasses everything that is always demanded of us cultural institutions.” But after KulturLab HD of the City of Heidelberg came on board as a sponsor and Heidelberger Frühling as a cooperation partner, the implementation of the project idea really took off again. The Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation is funding the composition commission, and the German Orchestra Foundation, BASF SE, and the Sparkassen Foundation are also supporting this special project.

KlangClub consists of eight young people from Heidelberg who make music and theater every week at KlangForum Heidelberg e. V.

A musical theater piece that combines various pieces of music, singing, sounds, and theater scenes.

Friendship that describes a relationship between people based on mutual affection, characterized by sympathy and trust.

In our self-developed piece HIGHS & LOWS, the stage is transformed into an amusement park. There are highs and lows, fast and slow motion, chaos and silence, exciting stories and big emotions:
everything that belongs to a visit to an amusement park. Get in!
Everything that belongs to a piece of music. Listen!
Everything that belongs to a drama. Feel it!

And everything that belongs to a real friendship. Right?

Freundschaft, die: bezeichnet ein auf gegenseitiger Zuneigung beruhendes Verhältnis von Menschen zueinander, das sich durch Sympathie und Vertrauen auszeichnet.

ensemble aisthesis

Understanding soundscapes with the senses: ensemble aisthesis, which specializes in 20th and 21st century contemporary music, embodies comprehensive perception in its Greek-inspired name. Under the artistic direction of founder Walter Nußbaum, up to 20 instrumentalists develop their repertoire, which ranges from modern classics such as Schoenberg, Webern, Boulez, Stockhausen, and Lachenmann to exemplary works of Romanticism by Wagner and Mahler.

Commissioned compositions are always created in direct collaboration with the composers. Close cooperation with SCHOLA HEIDELBERG has resulted in groundbreaking concert formats such as Prinzhorn, Heimathen, and the CD production "Nuits – weiß wie Lilien" (Nuits – white as lilies).

The ensemble aisthesis performs regularly in Heidelberg and is a guest at festivals such as musica viva in Munich, the Zurich Festival, the Romanesque Night in Cologne, the Tongyeong International Music Festival in South Korea, the Kassel Music Days, and the Basel Music Forum.
The reference recording LEIBOWITZ - COMPOSITEUR, with numerous first releases to mark the 100th anniversary of the composer's birth in 2013, which gives space to the work and creative output of René Leibowitz, attracted a great deal of attention.

SCHOLA HEIDELBERG

Virtuoso in both solo and ensemble performance: the vocal soloists of SCHOLA HEIDELBERG are masters of various styles and vocal techniques, including microtonal intonation, vocal and breath sounds. Under the artistic direction of its founder Walter Nußbaum, works from the 16th/17th and 20th/21st centuries often come together in unprecedented ways: A new culture of interpretation emerges from the intensive relationship between historical performance practice and contemporary music. The extensive repertoire is developed in close collaboration with leading contemporary composers. The ensemble's own commissions are highly regarded, such as in the series of works for its own concert formats Heimathen and Prinzhorn.

SCHOLA HEIDELBERG performs in Heidelberg, throughout Germany, and at international festivals such as the Salzburg Festival, Milano Musica, the Lucerne Festival, the Venice Biennale, the Salzburg Biennale, and the Festival d'automne à Paris. Cooperation with the Ensemble Modern, the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, the SWR Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the German Radio Philharmonic, and the Gürzenich Orchestra. Solo performances by singers from SCHOLA HEIDELBERG in the world premiere of the opera “Der Fall Babel” by Elena Mendoza and Matthias Rebstock at the opening of the 2019 Schwetzingen Festival under the direction of Walter Nußbaum.

CD recordings by SCHOLA HEIDELBERG featuring vocal compositions from the 20th and 21st centuries have received multiple international awards

Ekkehard Windrich

Ekkehard Windrich studied violin at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin and at the Carl Maria von Weber Academy of Music in Dresden. Early on, he focused on the interpretation of contemporary solo and chamber music. Ekkehard Windrich was initially a member of the Neue Musik Berlin chamber ensemble (KNM) before becoming concertmaster of the Austrian ensemble for new music Salzburg (œnm). He also served as concertmaster for the ensemble aisthesis. His special interest in electroacoustic music led him to the Institute of Sonology in The Hague from 2011 to 2013, where he completed his master's degree with honors.

His long-standing collaboration with Walter Nußbaum and the KlangForum Heidelberg gave rise to the central impulse to understand contemporary music, despite all its innovation, as a continuation of the past. With a newly awakened sense of musical tradition, Ekkehard Windrich has since taken on numerous concert program rehearsals with SCHOLA HEIDELBERG and the ensemble aisthesis. Working exclusively as a conductor since 2021, he has already performed several times with the ensemble ascolta (Stuttgart), the oh-ton-Ensemble (Oldenburg), and the KlangForum Heidelberg.

Nelly Sautter

Nelly Sautter is a freelance theater educator (M.A.). She leads various groups for children, young people, and adults in schools and cultural institutions, such as the Karlstorbahnhof and the KlangForum.
Her theater education work focuses on play development. In recent years, for example, she has worked with theater clubs to create original productions on topics such as home, time travel, climate change, and beauty.
From 2013 to 2018, Nelly Sautter worked at the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, where, in addition to her educational work, she also appeared on stage as an actress in many children's concerts. She continues to be active as a performer with the research theater collective “versuchsweise" (tentatively) and in classroom theater plays.

Magdalena Erhard

Magdalena Erhard (M.A. Education and Management) is a freelance concert and music theater educator, currently working for KlangForum and Heidelberger Frühling, among others.
From 2014 to 2018, she worked in this capacity at the Theater und Orchester Heidelberg, where she was primarily responsible for the overall artistic direction of family, children's, and youth concerts. In addition, she led various theater clubs and, together with her colleague and the performers, developed in-house productions on topics such as fast fashion and homeland. In her spare time, she acts as dramaturgical advisor to the productions of the research theater collective “versuchsweise” (tentatively).

Karola Obermüller

Karola Obermüller's work focuses on music theater pieces, which she has composed for several opera houses and festivals, as well as music for “ordinary and unusual” instruments in various ensembles. Recent commissions and working scholarships have taken her to places as diverse as Queensland, Australia; Venice; Alaska; Amsterdam; and Montreal, which almost always influence her composing in a direct way. Among other things, she has studied Carnatic music in India and worked at IRCAM in Paris and ZKM in Karlsruhe. Obermüller studied with Volker Blumenthaler (Meistersinger Conservatory Nuremberg), Adriana Hölszky (Mozarteum Salzburg), and Theo Brandmüller (Saar University of Music) and earned her doctorate at Harvard University under Chaya Czernowin, Julian Anderson, Helmut Lachenmann, and others. She is currently a professor of composition at the University of New Mexico.