ThoughtSounds for Walter Benjamin – An Israeli-German Composers Exchange

as part of the concert series of Klangnetz e. V.

Klangnetz, an association for young composers working in Berlin, organizes this exchange project between composers from Israel and Berlin in order to acquaint audiences in both countries with the relatively unknown contemporary music of the other country. The project will take place in June 2010 with two concerts in Israel and two in Germany. New ensemble pieces by Amit Gilutz, Eres Holz, Yoav Pasovsky, Hever Perelmuter, and Gilad Rabinovitch as well as by Sarah Nemtsov, Tom Rojo Poller, Asmus Trautsch, and Peng Yin will be premiered by Ensemble Adapter, while the German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin and his autobiographical book Berlin Childhood Around 1900 will be a point of reference for each work. The connection between Benjamin’s book and the music will also be addressed by the international symposium “Sound and Music in Walter Benjamin’s Writings,” which Klangnetz e. V. will host at the end of the project in cooperation with the Zentrum für Literatur- und Kulturforschung as well as the Akademie der Künste Berlin.

Workshops at Tel Aviv University, The Jerusalem Rubin Academy of Music and Dance, Hochschule für Musik und Darstellende Kunst Frankfurt am Main, and Universität der Künste Berlin are the core elements of the exchange. The participating composers and musicians together with the staff of the cooperating institutions will give the seminars. They will be directed at students in composition, conducting and musical instruments, as well as students in the humanities. In addition, a public discussion with the composers will be part of the symposium alongside various lectures, so that this exchange can be communicated to a broader audience. It is the aim of Klangnetz to initiate a process of historical understanding among artists of a younger generation from both countries through joint activities.