Our second Kiezsalon of 2021 is another open air special. We are looking forward to hosting three concerts in the surreal setting of the Bärenzwinger at Köllnischer Park. The former bear pit once housed Berlin’s heraldic animals, and currently serves as a cultural venue for site-specific contemporary art in Mitte.
A lifelong innovator and collaborator, and an active musician on five continents, Robyn Schulkowsky has dedicated herself to revealing the wonders of percussion to people around the world. Her continuous exploration of new sound dimensions has led to the development of new and unusual musical instruments.
She has premiered and recorded some of the most important solo percussion works of the 20th and 21st centuries, working with composers Karlheinz Stockhausen, Iannis Xenakis, and Morton Feldman, collaborating with artists such as legendary African drummer Kofi Ghanaba.
Liam Byrne plays very old and very new music on the viola da gamba, a 17th-century bowed string instrument like a guitar crossed with a cello. The instrument itself has an inherent sense of timeless melancholy and introspection, which is an aesthetic thread running throughout Liam’s work.
David Lang, Donnacha Dennehy, Nico Muhly, Greg Saunier, Valgeir Sigurðsson, and Edmund Finnis are all among the composers who’ve written new works for him. He has also performed with Damon Albarn, Efterklang, Mugison, Iarla Ó Lionáird, Martin Hayes, and Cleek Schrey. He is a member of the Icelandic artist collective and record label Bedroom Community, with whom he released his debut solo album Concrete in May 2019.
Jozef van Wissem is an avant-garde composer and lutenist playing his all black, one-of-a-kind custom-made baroque lute all around the world. He switched the intense lifestyle of a new wave artist and bar owner from Groningen to a modern-age thinker who studied lute in New York, becoming one of the most influential contemporary songwriters, known for his solo and cinematic works. In 2013 van Wissem won the Cannes Soundtrack Award at the Cannes Film Festival for Jim Jarmusch’s ‘Only Lovers Left Alive’.
Van Wissem has earned much critical acclaim for his work, the ‘liberation of the lute’ as he calls it. According to The Quietus, “Van Wissem is possibly the best known lute player in the western world… such is the intense quality of the music. Brevity, simplicity, directness is the key.”
The Bärenzwinger currently serves as a cultural venue for site-specific contemporary art in Mitte, having once housed Berlin’s heraldic bears until as recently as 2015. We will host the first ever concerts at a unique Berlin curiosity, hidden next to a small, public park, on a quiet street in Mitte.
As part of our safety first policy, tickets are only available online. There is no box office or guest list.
Last season, our shows sold out quickly, so we recommend securing your tickets early to avoid disappointment. Do not buy second-hand tickets from strangers – there are scammers around. As part of our safety first policy, tickets are only available online. There is no box office or guest list. Due to the pandemic, changes may be made at short notice. In the event of any changes, we will inform you by E-Mail. Please be aware that format of the event and venue arrangements have been adapted to maximize safety, and we have created a strict Kiezsalon hygiene and safety policy.
Kiezsalon w/ Robyn Schulkowsky, Liam Byrne and Jozef van Wissem
Saturday, 3rd July 2021 | Start 18:00 CET
Bärenzwinger im Köllnischen Park, Rungestraße 30 in 10179 Berlin-Mitte
The Kiezsalon has offered a forum for innovative musical activity beyond genre boundaries. As an interface between avant-garde, advanced pop music and interdisciplinary art, the series presents compact shows of 30 minutes by artists of diverse genres, origin and status.
Photo © Grabenblicke by Alex Lebus
