Opera and Democracy: Listening to Exile is a series of concerts and discussions diving into the art of people who left their country of birth and continued their practice elsewhere. From German and Austrian composers of the 1930s to today’s experiences of exile, this series will raise questions about Opera, Democracy, and Migration. In cooperation with the Manhattan School of Music. This festival is generously supported by the Friends of Freiburg University, New York.

April 16, 2024, 6:30 PM
OPENING TALK & RECEPTION: OPERA IN EXILE
Location: Goethe-Institut New York, 30 Irving Place, New York, NY 10003

Welcome & Keynote: “Opera and Democracy” by Kai Hinrich Müller followed by a conversation with Brigid Cohen, Gracie Golden, and Michael P. Steinberg about the past and present of being forced out of a country or a home and the struggles to continue artistic practices elsewhere.

April, 17 2024, 7:30 PM
CONCERT I: Songs from Exile with works by Rosy Geiger-Kullmann, Paul Aron, and Ernst Toch
Location: Center for Jewish History, Leo Baeck Institute New York, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY 10011

The concert introduces two German-Jewish composers in American exile: Paul Aron and Rosy Geiger-Kullmann. Aron, a protagonist of the German interwar avant-garde, founded an opera company in New York in the 1950s to popularize the works of émigrés such as Darius Milhaud, Kurt Weill, Tadeusz Kassern, and Ernst Toch through piano arrangements and English translations. One of these - his English version of Toch’s short opera Egon & Emilie - will be presented alongside exile songs by Aron. Geiger-Kullmann, a successful opera composer of the Weimar Republic, was born in Frankfurt and fled from the Nazis to New York and later to Monterey. Excerpts from her opera Columbus, written after her arrival in New York, and two stage works from her years in Germany have been reconstructed and will be performed in excerpts – a world premiere.

April 18, 2024, 6:30 PM
CONCERT II: Songs from Exile with works by Ruth Schonthal and Erich Zeisl
Location: Austrian Cultural Forum New York, 11 East 52nd Street, New York, NY 10022

Ruth Schonthal and Erich Zeisl will be presented in a concert at the Austrian Cultural Forum New York: Schonthal, who would have celebrated her 100th birthday in 2024, became an important figure in the New York music scene. She composed several operas, including Princess Maleen, which will be heard in part. Zeisl, on the other hand, lived mainly on the West Coast, where he worked for the film and various educational institutions. Excerpts from his opera fragment Hiob, based on the famous novel by Joseph Roth, will be performed next to Schonthal. Both works are largely unknown today, as are the biographies of their authors.

April 20, 2024, 3:00 PM (doors open 2:30 PM)
DANCE AND FINNISSAGE
Location: 1014 - space for ideas, 1014 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10028

This concert and dance performance by Miro Magloire’s New Chamber Ballet takes a leap from mid-century composers into the present. The performance starts with two dances set to music by Ursula Mamlok, who fled Germany for Ecuador in 1939 and then moved on to study in New York City in 1940. Once in the US, she became one of her generation's most renowned composers and wrote music in various genres and styles. After a conversation about the role and personal meaning of migration for their arts with German-born choreographer Miro Magloire and composer Alyssa Regent, who hails from Guadeloupe, the performance continues with music of one of Ursula Mamloks students: Pulitzer Prize winner Tania León was born in Cuba and left in 1967 for New York. The afternoon concludes with a World Premiere ballet set to music by Alyssa Regent.

More Information: https://www.1014.nyc/listening-to-exile