As the Auschwitz wheels of destruction turn, it is accompanied by orchestral music. Music on command. Forced musical labor. Female concentration camp prisoners between the ages of 16 and 40 witness unimaginable horror and have to play to it. The music fulfills functions: it has to express the power of the National Socialists; it coordinates and rhythmizes work; it calms and tortures; and it serves to entertain and relax the SS officers. The female musicians have to perform: it’s a matter of life and death.
This contemporary musical by spreeagenten is devoted to the memories of those who witnessed this horrific period of history, the members of the Women’s Orchestra of Auschwitz. The result is a cross-border dialogue between text and music, classical repertoire and electronic composition, past and present; it’s also a dialogue between the witnesses, ensemble and audience on the questions of “How to survive?” and “What does my art mean to me?”
The ensemble consists of a group of young performers and orchestral musicians, combined with acting and singing professionals. They become the resonant body of the memories of the musicians of Auschwitz, as well as of their individual personal and artistic workmanship beyond the end of the Second World War. A spreeagenten production in coproduction with Ernst-Haeckel-School Berlin-Marzahn, Schostakowitsch music school Berlin Lichtenberg, Jugendkammerorchester Berlin e.V., TATWERK | Performative Forschung, Heimathafen Neukölln and Theaterscoutings.
Funded by Capital Cultural Fund (Hauptstadtkulturfonds) and with funds by Berliner Projektfonds Kulturelle Bildung. Financially supported by Verein der Bundestagsfraktion DIE LINKE e. V. and supported by the Auschwitz-Birkenau Memorial and Museum and the Theaterhaus Berlin Mitte. In Partnership with taz, die tageszeitung.
Mädchenorchester
Thursday, 29th August 2019 | Doors 18:45 CET | Starts 19:00 CET
Heimathafen Neukölln | Karl-Marx-Str. 141 | 12043 Berlin
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Photo © spreeagenten
