Memories in Music Leichhardt in Australien

The 19th-century expeditions of the Brandenburg naturalist Ludwig Leichhardt along with colonial settlement projects have left deep scars in the north of Australia inhabited by indigenous communities. The two world premieres by Kirsten Reese and Erkki Veltheim are dedicated to the varied encounters between indigenous and Western knowledge systems, cultures and ways of life, the reappraisal of colonial structures and making indigenous culture visible. Linking four formats, Reese describes her long process of research and learning in a complex web of material and sound that has led to a new approach to and an expanded understanding of hearing/listening. Drawing on points of intersection in space and time between Leichhardt, Wagner, three baritones, three Australian owl species and Daniel Wilfred, a songman of the Wägilak clan from Ngukurr, Veltheim has created a multi-level interwoven musical dialogue between parallel worlds and transformations.

Kirsten Reese: Cobourg Nets (2020/21, world premiere) for percussion, harp, flute and clarinet with field recordings

Commission from the Akademie der Künste, Berlin

Project development in 2019/20: in cooperation with the Nan Giese Gallery at Charles Darwin University in Darwin, Australia; 2019 research trip funded by a residency scholarship from the Goethe-Institut and a work grant from the Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Europe in 2019

Erkki Veltheim, with Daniel Wilfred: October 19th, 1845. An Idyll for three dead baritones and ensemble, with Yolngu manikay obbligato (2020, world premiere)

Commission from the Akademie der Künste, Berlin
with Ensemble Adapter (Kristjana Helgadóttir, flute; Ingólfur Vilhjálmsson, clarinet; Gunnhildur Einarsdóttir, harp; Matthias Engler, percussion)

Stage design: Ruth Lorenz

Costumes: Katharina Gault