Musikfest Berlin will be hosted by Berliner Festspiele in co-operation with the Foundation Berliner Philharmoniker from 24 August to 18 September. The programme of the 20th edition of this international festival of orchestras will focus on the double continent of America and bears the title of “Amériques”, the plural title of Edgard Varèse’s epic orchestra piece from the year 1921.
The opening night will feature music from the American double continent in two concerts: Conducted by Thierry Fischer, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra will perform music from both the South American and the North American Modernist period, presenting works by Heitor Villa-Lobos and Alberto Ginastera as well as Charles Ives’ Central Park in the Dark. In the following Late Night Concert, the São Paulo Big Band will explore the Música Popular Brasileira. To celebrate the 150th birthday of composer Charles Ives, his music will be honoured in various concerts: One example is a soirée of modernity, combining music and texts of composers Charles Ives and Arnold Schönberg, who were born in the same year.
The Kansas City Symphony under the musical direction of their new Music Director Matthias Pintscher will make their Musikfest Berlin-debut – and this concert is the first performance in Europe by this innovative US-American orchestra, founded in 1982. They will perform works by Charles Ives and Aaron Copland as well as George Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. As an expert in the global history of music and culture, Jordi Savall has developed a dialogue of mutual influences between European Baroque music and the songs of slaves between 1440 and 1880 in his project Un mar de músicas.
Three concerts will also focus on the music of Isabel Mundry, who explores new musical territory in her work, often drawing on the older musical history of Baroque and Renaissance.
This year’s festival will focus on the US-American composer Ruth Crawford Seeger (1901-1953): Ensemble Modern will create a dialogue with her contemporaries and composers of the present times in a three-part concert portrait. They will perform compositions by Johanna Beyer, who was born in Leipzig in 1888 and emigrated to the US in 1923, by Tania León (born in 1943) from Cuba, and the Californian composer Katherine Balch (born in 1991). Furthermore, the programme of Musikfest Berlin will feature works by the US-American composers Allison Loggins-Hull (Cleveland Orchestra) and Missy Mazzoli (Berliner Philharmoniker).
