Klangwerkstatt Berlin

In the page's words:

From November 10 to 19, 2023, the 33rd edition of Klangwerkstatt Berlin - Festival for New Music will present 23 concerts, performances, family concerts, children's and youth ensembles, and lunchtime music with snacks at the Kreuzberg Kunstquartier Bethanien and Fahrbereitschaft Lichtenberg under the title Kollektiv und Gemeinsinn.

The guests are outstanding Berlin, national and international ensembles and artists of all generations with numerous premieres and German premiere performances. The vocal ensemble Alter Ratio from Ukraine will also be performing.

"The smallest social unit is not a human being, but two human beings". Bertolt Brecht thus describes society as molecular energy with exchange and dialectics, communication and empathy. The duo in its maximum reduction is the nucleus of this social energy.

The Fokus Duo series presents four pure duo concerts with the viola duo Karen Lorenz and Nikolaus Schlierf, Yukiko Sugawara and Tomoko Hemmi play four-hand piano pieces, and the Reflexion K duo performs works for flute and cello.

It is the collective idea that makes the ensemble a testing ground for social interaction. Self-management, lack of hierarchy, the principle of consensus and orientation towards the common good become the guiding principles of collective action. This approach is already inscribed in the name of Kollektiv Unruhe. The group of instrumentalists and composers undertakes the venture of creating a full-length work together.

At this year's festival, Berlin ensembles will play together with groups from abroad: ensemble mosaik will cooperate with the Spanish saxophone quartet Klexox, LUX:NM with the French duo BAZAR ÉLECTRIQUE, and the amateur ensemble KNM Campus will join forces with the group CoMA from Great Britain and the Netherlands.

The shared experience of music is essential, especially for the members of the children's and youth ensembles. Joint artistic activity at eye level, across all age groups and regardless of educational level.
The Klangwerkstatt Berlin 2023 wants to explore how the "greater whole" emerges in collectives characterized by a sense of community. In music as well as in everyday life.