Liebe Arbeit Exil - An Evening of Songs by Weill & Eisler
The musical theater performance LIEBE ARBEIT EXIL traces the careers of composers Kurt Weill and Hanns Eisler, from their successful beginnings in Berlin to their lives in exile. Both composers rose to prominence in the 1920s as Brecht’s composers, and both fled to the United States in the 1930s to escape the Nazis.
Kurt Weill wrote musicals for Broadway in New York. Hanns Eisler composed film scores in Hollywood. The recital explores the life paths of the two composers and the historical context through selected texts and letters.
Anna von Schrottenberg – Acting and Singing
Anna von Schrottenberg was born in Zurich and studied voice at the Zurich Conservatory and acting at the Rostock University of Music and Drama. This was followed by numerous engagements, including at the Theater der Jungen Welt in Leipzig and the Junges Deutsches Theater in Berlin. Since 2009, she has been living and working as a freelancer in Berlin. Her own projects include, for example, “despite eisler,” an adaptation of Eisler’s “Hollywood Liederbuch,” and the song program “mérite caché,” in which she set sayings from Lao Tzu’s “Tao te king” to music. At the 33rd Stage Song Contest in Wrocław, Poland, she received the GEMA Special Prize in 2012.
Matthew Rubenstein – Piano
Matthew Rubenstein is from Washington, D.C., and studied piano at the Manhattan School of Music, the University of Illinois, and the City University of New York. He has performed in the United States, Brazil, and Germany in numerous solo and chamber music concerts and has won several prizes at international piano competitions. In 2007, he released the first complete recording of Aribert Reimann’s piano works on the cpo label. In 2011, Berlin Classics released his CD “Berlin im Licht: Klaviermusik der Novembergruppe,” produced by Deutschlandradio Kultur; this was followed in 2013 by another solo program, this time featuring piano works by the Berlin composer Heinz Tiessen, which were released on CD by Toccata Classics in November 2015.
www.matt-rubenstein.com
An event presented by the Mendelssohn-Remise with support from Villa Aurora & Thomas Mann House e.V.