Programs with Savvy

More than just music

Many “Programs with savvy” have a socio-political or scientific relevance. In both these areas, musical productions benefit from proximity to higher learning, which frequently leads to cooperation with colleagues in the different faculties. Every winter semester, Dr. Susanne Gläß leads the four-hour seminar “Music4all” that drafts the program leaflets for each project and organizes introductory public lectures. The seminar is accredited in General Studies and for third-year bachelor students enrolled in Cultural Studies (Module M8/9).

• Oratorio on Charles Darwin: “The Origin“ by Richard Einhorn (European premiere)
• Work by a 19th century British composer with African forefathers: Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s "The Song of Hiawatha”
• Excerpts from a long-forgotten opera Kurt Weill began composing in 1933 on a Jewish theme: “Der Weg der Verheißung” (Bremen premier performance)
• On Memorial Day for the Victims of Nazi Germany, 27th January, performance of Michael Tippett’s oratorio “A Child of Our Time” in the Bremen Dom
• The hydro-electric power plant Itaipú on the Brazilian-Paraguayan border as the theme of  Philip Glass’ composition of the same name (German premiere)
• “Compositions by Women” as theme of a concert with a Bremen premiere
• Death and Music as theme of a concert: Funeral marches from Italy and New Orleans, Liszt’s “Totentanz” and Rachmaninov’s “Isle of the Dead”
• “Alla zingarese – die Träume der Sesshaften vom ungebundenen Leben der Fahrenden”: Compositions that reflect the influence of Hungarian ‘gypsy music’ on the music of the classical and romantic period.