Mahler Project - Germanic Creative Expression

Update - February 2009


What follows is an outline of where we find ourselves with enlisting participation for the Mahler Project, which will occur primarily during the fall of 2009. It is worth noting that some participants will present their events during the spring of 2009 and the winter of 2010. 

 

 

Butler University participants include:

 

Butler Ballet – Michelle Jarvis

 

* Laban Movement Choir – Cynthia Pratt

9/19/09 (Rain date 9/26); Time TBA; field available at 4:30; on hold; Free

In addition to the analysis of movement and his dance experimentations, Rudolf Laban was also a proponent of dance for the

masses. Toward this end, Laban developed the art of "movement choir", wherein large numbers of people move together in

some choreographed manner, but that can include personal expression.  Rehearsal 9/12, time TBA.

 

* Butler Ballet presents the Annual Midwinter Festival – Michelle Jarvis

2/12-13/10; Time TBA; CMH; $ TBA

Choreography hopefully to include some by or influenced by choreographers of the topic era.

 

*Butler Theater – John Green

will present a full season of German plays - DIE TRUMMERFRAUEN: The Trummerfrauen was the collective name given to

the German women who cleared the debris, piece by piece, in the German cities that were raised to the ground in the

allied bombings of World War ll.  As their contribution to the Mahler Project, Butler Theatre is staging the work of three writers

who helped reclaim and rebuild German theatre culture from the rubble.

 

* Bertolt Brecht's "The Caucausian Chalk Circle" ("Der Kaukasische Kreidekreis")

Oct 7-11, 2009; Time TBA; LH168; $ TBA; Directed by Owen Schaub

Borrowing from an old Chinese tale, Brecht argues, in this exemplar of his epic theatre concept, for the principle that

resources, especially the lives of children, should go to those who will make the most of them.

 

*Jackie by Elfriede Jelinek and Savage Messiah text by George Steiner, adapted by John Green

   Nov 11-15, 2009; TIME TBA; LH168; $TBA; Directed by John Green

 Jackie:  “So there is Jackie Kennedy Onassis: all calculation, a very smart, educated woman, talented too; with this total focus

on having the right husband.”  The regional premiere of one of the Princess Plays by Elfriede Jelinek, the 2004 Nobel laureate

for literature.

Savage Messiah:  Was there some crazed level at which Hitler thought of himself as a Jew?  Is there a sense in which Israel

is Hitler’s legacy, in which the Holocaust and the world of political terror we have known since were acts of the long-awaited

false Messiah?  These are the questions that drive George Steiner’s novel The Portage to San Cristobal of A.H. and which

are explored in this multi-media performance.

 

* Offending the Audience by Peter Handke

Feb 24-28, 2010; Time TBA;  LH168; $ TBA; Directed by Michael Bachman; The Austrian playwright Peter Handke’s 1966 play Offending The Audience is an hour-long analysis of the theatre, taking place in a theatre, that tries to be as unlike the theatre we know as it possibly can be.

* Poetry Reading by Norbert Krapf, Indiana Poet Laureate – Diane Timmerman, Claude Grossman

9/24/09, 7:30pm; RBJR (not confirmed); Free

Buried Treasures: Recovering German Heritage Through Poetry and Music.  Indiana Poet Laureate Norbert Krapf will recite

his German roots poems and his American English translations of early Rainer Maria Rilke poems to the accompaniment of

original and traditional music, including jazz, by his pianist collaborator Monika Herzig and Friends. Claudia Grossmann, like

Monika, a native of Southern Germany, will read the Rilke poems in the original German.

 

School of Music – Dan Bolin

•     Butler Symphony Orchestra plays Mahler – Richard Clark

        9/20/09       3:00pm                 CMH                Free

        "Totenfeier" (Death Celebration).  With other ensembles performing TBA

•     Butler Symphony Orchestra plays Mahler No. 4 – Richard Clark

        10/11/09     3:00pm                 CMH                Free

        Symphony No. 4 with Nancy Davis Booth, soprano.  "Adagietto" from Symphony No. 5.

•     Butler Symphony Orchestra plays Mahler Symphony No. 2 – Richard Clark

        11/8/09       TBA                       CMH                TBA                 

        Symphony No. 2 ("Resurrection") with the Butler Chorale, University Choir and Nancy Davis Booth, soprano.

•     Butler Wind Ensemble – Robert Grechesky

        4/11/10       3:00pm                 CMH                TBA

        Program TBA but may include: Kurt Weill "Kleine Dreigroschenmusik" (Littler Threepenny Music, 1929); Suite from "Die Dreigroschenoper" arranged for wind orchestra.  Berthold Goldschmidt "March Militaire, Ops 20" (1932).  Ervin Schulhoff "Concerto for String Quartet and Wind Orchestra".  All these composers represent what the Nazi's called "Entartete Musik" or "Decadent Music".  Any music written by Jews or Blacks, or anything that smacked of jazz, was mocked and banned by the Nazi's.

•     Frank Felice will offer a fall 2009 graduate course on Mahler Symphonies.

 

Leadership Through the Arts Forum will reserve two slots for visiting scholars whose lectures will be on related topics.

•     Leadership Through the Arts Forum: Susan Youens – Kathy Lang

        4/2/09         7:30pm                  EDRH                   Free

        German song in the 19th century; her most recent book is Heinrich Heine and the Lied (Cambridge University Press, 2007). Youens received her Ph.D. from Harvard University in 1975 and is currently the J. W. Van Gorkom Professor of Music at the University of Notre Dame. She also teaches at the Steans Institute for Young Artists at the Ravinia Festival and writes program notes each year for Carnegie Hall's song recital series. Youens is currently working on A Social History of the Lied.

 

Arts Administration area – Susan Zurbuchen, Rose Kleiman

•     will offer a team-taught course on collaboration fall 2009.

 

Media Arts – Ken Creech

•     will offer an honors course on German Expressionist Film in fall 2009.

 

Other

•     Peter Alexander will offer an honors course on selected topics in German and Austrian music, art, and architecture from 1880-1940 in fall 2009.

 

 

Indianapolis Arts Community participants include:

 

The American Pianists Association – Joel Harrison

•     Lecture

        4/1/09         4:30pm                  EDRH                   Free

        A lecture by Dr. Susan Youens, who will discuss Lieder in its social and artistic context during turn-of-the-twentieth-century Vienna.

•     German-Style Dinner

        4/1/09         6:00pm                  FS                           $25

        A German-Style Dinner.  $25 per person; reservations required prior to March 27.  940-9943

•     Lieder Recital

        4/1/09         7:30pm                  EDRH                   $20; students $5                                

        American Pianists Association Classical Fellowship Award Finalists accompany soprano Elisabeth Honn Hoegberg and baritone Alan Dunbar in a concert of German art songs by Alban Berg, Richard Strauss, Mahler and Hugo Wolf.   A pre-concert talk begins at 7:00.

 

The Indianapolis Opera – Patty Harvey

•     Ariadne auf Naxos                  Dress Rehearsal for student groups only

        9/30/09                                       7:00pm                  CMH                                                     $7; must pre-register

        Music by Richard Strauss; Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.  Performed in German with English supertitles.   With singers Angela Brown, Jane Dutton, Rachele Gilmore and Arnold Rawls accompanied by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Caraher.

•     Ariadne auf Naxos

        10/2/09 at 8:00pm and 10/4/09 at 2:00    CMH                $

        Music by Richard Strauss; Libretto by Hugo von Hofmannsthal.  Performed in German with English supertitles.   With singers Angela Brown, Jane Dutton, Rachele Gilmore and Arnold Rawls accompanied by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra conducted by James Caraher.  Pre-performance lecture begins at 7:15/1:15 in the Krannert Room.

 

 

 

The Indianapolis Museum of Art

•     Butler students will have an opportunity to view German Expressionist prints from the collection (Ellen Lee).

•     Films at the IMA – Rosanne Winings, Ken Creech, Linda Duke

        Free but tickets are required and can be obtained at the door prior to the film/day of event.

        The Tobias Theatre at the Indianapolis Museum of Art

        10/29/09     7:00pm                 Nosferatu (1922, dir. F.W. Murnau, 94 mins, NR)

        11/5/09       7:00pm                 Metropolis (1927, dir. Fritz Lang, 153 mins, NR)

        11/12/09     7:00pm                 Coffee & Cigarettes (2003, dir. Jim Jarmusch, 95 mins, R)

        2/???/10      TBA                       The Rape of Europa?.  Robert Edsel or someone lecture one night.

 

WFYI – Richard Miles

•     Broadcast of films and documentary videos that are topic relevant.

 

The Indiana Repertory Theatre

•     considering doing a reading of a closely aligned work using professional and student actors.

 

The Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra

•     considering how it might participate; conversations have occurred with Simon Crookall.  Additionally, ISO Education Director Beth Outland will assist with marketing and communication.

 

The IUPUI Max Kade German-American Center – Claudia Grossman

•     will present a lecture on the influence of German immigrants in 20th Century American culture at IUPUI

 

TBA

•     Other dates of note for which events may be planned:

        20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall                         11/9/09

        Yom Hashoah (Holocaust Remembrance Day)        4/12/10

        150th Anniversary of the Birth of Gustav Mahler July 7, 1860 - May 18, 1911

 

 

 

 

External Participants

American Pianists Association                                                    Joel Harrison

Family and Child Services; German Consulate                       Sven Schumacher

Indianapolis Museum of Art                                                         Linda Duke, Rosanne Winings

Indianapolis Opera                                                                          Patty Harvey

Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra                                             Beth Outland

Max Kade Center at IUPUI                                                             Claudia Grossman

WFYI Radio                                                                                        Richard Miles

 

 

Butler Participants

Dance                                                                                                    Michelle Jarvis, Cynthia Pratt

Leadership Through the Arts Forum                                          Peter Alexander, Kathy Lang

Media Arts                                                                                          Ken Creech

Media Relations, Publications                                                      Marcia Dowell, Marc Allan, Sally Cutler

Music                                                                                                    Dan Bolin, Bob Grechesky, Richard Clark

Theatre                                                                                                 John Green, Owen Schaub, Diane Timmerman

Modern Foreign Languages                                                           TBA