Hans Tutschku Portrait Concert

Join us for a special concert to celebrate German composer Hans Tutschku who is retiring from his position as Fanny P. Mason Professor of Music at Harvard University after 21 years. Hans has been an avid supporter of the Goethe-Institut’s mission to foster international cultural exchange and an important partner over the years. Our first collaboration took place in 2011 with Sound in Space, a festival and competition celebrating the art of Electroacoustic Music and its interpretation, which was geared towards composition students from across North America. Various symposia focused on ground-breaking debates within the German contemporary music scene followed in addition to multiple concerts at the institute. The Goethe-Institut Boston is pleased host this concert and wishes Hans all the best for life after Harvard. Presented in cooperation with the Department of Music at Harvard University RVSP: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hans-tutschku-portrait-concert-tickets-1871985512059?aff=oddtdtcreator">Hans Tutschku Portrait Concert Tickets, Thu, Nov 13, 2025 at 7:30 PM | Eventbrite</a> Concert Program: Einst mit dir for soprano, clarinet, violin and live-electronics 2007, 13:00 min upon the poem "Fenster wo ich einst mit dir" by Stefan George sparks for piano and 8-ch live-electronics 2021, 17:00 min Still Air 3 for oboe, bass clarinet and electronics 2014, 11:30 min voice-unrooted for soprano and electronics 2016, 18:00 min Dedicated to: Tony Arnold Performed by: Tony Arnold&nbsp;– soprano Amy Advocat&nbsp;– clarinet &amp; bass clarinet Ethan Chaves&nbsp;– violin Elizabeth England&nbsp;– oboe Jack Yarbrough&nbsp;– piano

Goethe-Institut Boston

Concert I: Lydian String Quartet presents Beethoven+

The&nbsp;Lydian String Quartet, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Boston, will present the complete string quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven in a series of 8 concerts over two years, culminating with the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death in Spring 2027. Each concert will present two Beethoven quartets framing contemporary works that demonstrate Beethoven’s lasting influence and providing new context for listening and understanding these canonical works in today’s world. Please get your tickets here: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-lydian-string-quartet-beethoven-concert-1-tickets-1715766546929?aff=oddtdtcreator">The Lydian String Quartet: Beethoven+ Concert 1 Tickets, Sun, Nov 16, 2025 at 3:00 PM | Eventbrite</a> I. Op. 18, No. 4&nbsp; Anders Hillborg (b. 1954) –&nbsp;Kongsgaard Variations&nbsp;(2006)&nbsp; Op. 127&nbsp; Beethoven’s early, dramatic, C minor string quartet (Op. 18, No. 4) showcases the boldness of the young composer’s voice where one can hear the roots of tension between classical form and a very personal kind of emotional expression. The majestic Op. 127, the first of Beethoven’s late quartets, is a culmination of this development where the rigors of classical form are subsumed by an intimate lyricism and profound expression. At the heart of this late masterpiece is a sublime set of variations, an archaic form which Beethoven returned to throughout his life, now elevated to a spiritual dimension. Swedish composer Anders Hillborg brings a similar transcendent quality to his own set of variations for string quartet. Based on a fragment from the Arietta of Beethoven’s last piano sonata, the&nbsp;Kongsgaard Variations&nbsp;inhabit the same expressive world as Beethoven’s late-period variations with a distinctively contemporary voice. About the Lydian String Quartet From its beginning in 1980, the Lydian Quartet has embraced the full range of the string quartet repertory with curiosity, virtuosity, and dedication to the highest artistic ideals of music making. In its formative years, the Lydians were awarded top prizes in international string quartet competitions, including Evian, Portsmouth and Banff, culminating in 1984 with the Naumburg Award for Chamber Music. In the years to follow, the quartet continued to build a reputation for their depth of interpretation, performing with "a precision and involvement marking them as among the world's best quartets" (Chicago Sun-Times). From the acknowledged masterpieces of the classical, romantic, and modern eras to the remarkable compositions written by today's cutting-edge composers, the Lydian Quartet approaches music-making with a sense of exploration and personal expression that is timeless.

Helmut Lachenmann @ 90 | New Music Concert | Sound Icon performs compositions by Helmut Lachenmann

Sound Icon, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Boston, celebrates the 90th birthday of Helmut Lachenmann, one of the most influential and deeply visionary composers of the last 100 years. This concert features Helmut Lachenmann's Guero, for piano solo (1970) in conjunction with percussion and piano works by two of Lachenmann's students Marc Andre and Pierluigi Billone. RVSP: <a href="https://www.goethe.de/ins/us/en/ver.cfm?event_id=26980273">New Music Concert: Helmut Lachenmann @ 90 - Goethe-Institut USA</a> Sound Icon is a sinfonietta committed to performing the most significant progressive works of the past few decades. As a sinfonietta, Sound Icon offers the color palette of a full orchestra with the precision and flexibility of a chamber ensemble. The technical and logistical challenges of contemporary repertoire for sinfonietta often discourage live performance in the United States, however, Sound Icon embraces this music and aims to bring this repertoire to Boston and beyond. Through ambitious programming performed to the highest standards, Sound Icon engages audiences in dialogues about what progressive music is and can be: music that redefines rules, experiences, and expectations.

Helmut Lachenmann @ 90 | New Music Concert | Callithumpian Consort performs compositions by Helmut Lachenmann

The Callithumpian Consort, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Boston, celebrates the 90th birthday of Helmut Lachenmann, one of the most influential and deeply visionary composers of the last 100 years. Lachenmann's "musique concrète instrumentale"&nbsp;created a new and unique sound world using extended instrumental techniques, re-creating the sonic landscape of electronic music with the vividness and intimacy of live performance. This portrait concert will include music that span's Lachenmann's creative&nbsp;life, including Pression for solo cello and temA&nbsp;(an anagram of Atem [breath] and a play on Theme) for trio,&nbsp;&nbsp;as well as two works for solo piano: Ein Kinderspiele ("Child's Play") which uses simple gestures&nbsp;to expressively explore the overlooked resonances of the piano, and Serynade (Serenade, with the Y dedicating the piece to Lachenmann's&nbsp;wife, pianist Yukiko Sugawara), a 30-minute ecstatic vision of devotion and faith. RSVP: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/helmut-lachenmann-90-tickets-1735678774939?aff=oddtdtcreator">Helmut Lachenmann @ 90 Tickets, Fri, Nov 21, 2025 at 8:00 PM | Eventbrite</a> Stephen Drury, piano,&nbsp;has given performances throughout the U.S., Europe, Asia, and Latin America, soloing with orchestras from San Diego to Bucharest. Stephen's repertoire stretches from Bach, Mozart, and Liszt to the music of today. The U.S. State Department sponsored two concert tours that enabled him to take the sounds of dissonance to Paris, Hong Kong, Greenland, Pakistan, Prague, and Japan. He has appeared as conductor and pianist at the Angelica Festival in Italy, the MusikTriennale Köln in Germany, the Spoleto Festival USA, the Britten Sinfonia in England, as well as at Tonic, Roulette, and the Knitting Factory in New York. Drury has also performed with Merce Cunningham and Mikhail Barishnikov in the Lincoln Center Festival, at Alice Tully Hall as part of the Great Day in New York Festival, with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players, and with the Seattle Chamber Players in Seattle and Moscow. A champion of 20th-century music, Drury’s critically acclaimed performances range from the piano sonatas of Charles Ives to works by John Cage and György Ligeti. He premiered the solo part of John Cage’s 101 with the BSO and gave the first performance of John Zorn’s concerto for piano and orchestra Aporias with Dennis Russell Davies and the Cologne Radio Symphony. He has commissioned new works from Cage, Zorn, Terry Riley, Lee Hyla, and Chinary Ung. His recordings include music by Beethoven, Liszt, Stockhausen, Ravel, Stravinsky, Charles Ives, Elliott Carter, Frederic Rzewski, John Cage, Colin McPhee, and John Zorn. Drury created and directs NEC’s Summer Institute for Contemporary Piano Performance, and assumed directorship of NEC’s Enchanted Circle concert series in 1997. Praised by&nbsp;OperaWire&nbsp;for her “star energy” and “lethal coloratura,”&nbsp;mezzo-soprano Chihiro Asano&nbsp;is emerging as a dynamic new voice on today’s operatic stage. Her breakout as Ruggiero in Handel’s&nbsp;Alcina&nbsp;(MassOpera) earned the evening’s loudest ovation, with&nbsp;The Boston Musical Intelligencer&nbsp;praising her portrayal as spanning “a gamut of emotions.” A Boston-based artist originally from Japan, Asano holds a Master of Music in Vocal Pedagogy (2022) and a Graduate Diploma in Vocal Performance (2023) from the New England Conservatory. She is a two-time Metropolitan Opera Laffont Competition District Winner (Puerto Rico 2023, Iowa 2025) and the 2025 Midwest Region Second Prize laureate, quickly establishing herself as a compelling interpreter across opera and art song. Recent highlights include Shizue in&nbsp;Shizue&nbsp;(Portland Opera), Naomi in&nbsp;the living room&nbsp;(Boston Opera Collaborative), and Hansel and Cinderella with Boston Lyric Opera’s Opera101 series. She has also appeared with White Snake Opera, NEMPAC, Nightingale Vocal Ensemble, Cambridge Chamber Ensemble, Cappella Clausura, and as a Marlboro Music Festival fellow. Japanese flutist Shion Suzuki is based in Boston and known for her expressive artistry and diverse international experience. A graduate of Tokyo College of Music, she began her musical journey at the age of three, studying piano with her mother, and took up the flute at the age of ten. She later joined the Chiba Prefecture Youth Orchestra, marking the start of her orchestral experience. She has participated in esteemed music festivals, including the Kusatsu International Summer Music Academy, the Texas Music Festival, and&nbsp;Flauti al Castello&nbsp;in Italy. Her musical development has been shaped through masterclasses with flutists including Vincent Lucas, Paul Edmund-Davies, Dieter Flury, Hansgeorg Schmeiser, Lorna McGhee, Aralee Dorough, and Sergio Pallottelli. She has also had the opportunity to perform alongside Sir James and Lady Jeanne Galway. Shion has received recognition in competitions including the All Japan Student Music Competition and the Kanagawa Music Competition. In 2024, she was a semifinalist in the Padova International Music Competition (Soloist and Orchestra Division) and received first prize in the New York Classical Music Competition (Master-B Flute Category). Currently, Shion is active both in Japan and internationally. She leads the Flute Quartet SORA and continues to expand her artistic reach through solo and chamber performances. She holds a Graduate Performance Diploma from Boston Conservatory at Berklee, where she studied with Professor Ann Bobo, and a Professional Studies Certificate in the Contemporary Classical Music Program under Professor Sarah Brady. Hailed as “superb”, “incisive” and “sonorous and panoramic” in The Boston Globe,&nbsp;cellist&nbsp;David Russell&nbsp;maintains a vigorous schedule both as soloist and as collaborator in the U.S. and Europe. He was appointed to the teaching faculty of Wellesley College in 2005 and currently serves as Senior Lecturer and Director of Chamber Music. A strong advocate of new music, Russell has performed with such ensembles as Boston Modern Orchestra Project, Firebird Ensemble, Callithumpian Consort, Ludovico Ensemble, Music on the Edge, Dinosaur Annex, Collage, the Fromm Players at Harvard and entelechron. Recent projects include recordings of works by Eric Moe, Lee Hyla, Tamar Diesendruck, Donald Crockett, Chen Yi and Roger Zahab, premieres of chamber works by Barbara White, Daron Hagen, José-Luis Hurtado, Robert Carl and Gilda Lyons, premieres of works for cello and orchestra by Sam Nichols and Laurie San Martin, recordings of cello concertos by Chen Yi and Lukas Foss, and new works for solo cello by Andrew Rindfleisch, Nicholas Vines, Martha Horst and John Mallia. He is a busy performer in the Boston area, making regular appearances with such ensembles as Cantata Singers and Ensemble, the Worcester Chamber Music Society and Emmanuel Music. He serves as Principal cello of Odyssey Opera and has served as cello faculty at Boston Conservatory at Berklee. Russell has recorded for the Tzaddik, Albany, BMOPSound, New Focus, CRI, Centaur and New World Records labels.

RPM Short Film Festival

Fourteen films in six and a half hours – RPM and the Goethe-Institut Boston present films in three different sections at this short film festival: at 2:00 PM, two films will transfer you to distant landscapes; at 4:00 PM, you can experience short films from Germany; and at 7:00 PM, you can encounter the work of Gunvor Nelson. <img src="https://www.goethe.de/resources/files/jpg1417/smallsong3-formatkey-jpg-w320r.jpg"> 2:00 PM: DOWSING Admission: FREE with RSVP: <a href="https://rpmfestival.ticketspice.com/dec-6-2pm-4pm-rpm-shorts-the-goethe-institut-boston">Dec. 6, 2PM &amp; 4PM, RPM Shorts, The Goethe Institut, Boston</a> Small Songs - Brian Rogers 39' | Digital | Color | 2025 Dowsing - Timothy Feeney 45' | Digital | Double Projector | color | 2025 Total: 84:00   <img src="https://www.goethe.de/resources/files/jpg1417/marcrichter-hugskisses1-formatkey-jpg-w320r.jpg"> 4:00 PM: Hide and Seek – Short Films from Germany Admission: FREE with RSVP: <a href="https://rpmfestival.ticketspice.com/dec-6-2pm-4pm-rpm-shorts-the-goethe-institut-boston">Dec. 6, 2PM &amp; 4PM, RPM Shorts, The Goethe Institut, Boston</a> Hugs &amp; Kisses - Marc Richter 10:48' | Digital | Color | 2025 | Germany Ecstasie - Lily Baldwin 13' | Digital | color | 2025 | Germany Sandia - Mélissa Faivre 7:52' | Digital | Color | 2024 Evening Rounds (Avondronde) - Laura Heinig 6' | Digital | color | 2025 | Germany &amp; Netherlands Trace of a Silent Tear - alive duo 15' | Digital | Color | 2024 | Germany &amp; Finland i.a. (inter alia) - Sidney Mandros 21' | Digital | color | 2025 | Germany Total: 75:00   <img src="https://www.goethe.de/resources/files/png195/gunvor_nelson-formatkey-png-w320r.png"> 7:00 PM: Gunvor Nelson – Call &amp; Response: Relay Admission: FREE with RSVP: <a href="https://rpmfestival.ticketspice.com/dec6-7pm-gunvor-nelson-call-and-response-relay--the-goethe-institut-boston">Dec.6 7PM, Gunvor Nelson - Call and Response: Relay , the Goethe Institut</a> RPM Festival and the Goethe-Institut Boston co-present a special screening program Gunvor Nelson – Call &amp; Response: Relay (The third part of this series), honoring one of the highly acclaimed Avard Garde filmmakers Gunvor Nelson. This program features a total of six films from different decades of her long lasting career. Curated by Sarah Keller, Sara Jordeno, Shira Segal and Wenhua Shi. Moon's Pool 15' | 1973 | Color | SOUND Fog Pumas with Dorothy Wiley | 25' | 1967-68 | B&amp;W | SOUND New Evidence 22' | 2006 | COLOR | SOUND Snowdrift 9' | 2001 | Color | SOUND Field study #2 8' | 1988 | COLOR | SOUND | 16mm Total: 83 mins Followed by a post-screening discussion by Sara Jordeno (Rhode Island School of Design), Sarah Keller (UMass-Boston), Shira Segal (MIT) and Wenhua Shi (RPM Festival).

Reflections on the Berlin Biennale 2025

<a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/reflections-on-the-berlin-biennale-2025-tickets-1865140899639?aff=oddtdtcreator">Admission free, please register.</a> Meghan Clare Considine's&nbsp;talk presents a series of reflections and questions occasioned by the 13th Berlin Biennale, which ran from 14 June to 14 September 2025 in multiple venues across Berlin. Taking the project's framework of fugitivity as a guide, Considine will discuss key artworks, curatorial claims, and critical reception to consider the value, challenges, and responsibilities of the biennial as a form of exhibition-making for today. &nbsp; BIO Meghan Clare Considine is curatorial assistant at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, where she is contributing to exhibitions and publications with Portia Zvavahera, Boston's African American Master Artists-in-Residence Program, Lucy Raven, and Cynthia Daignault, among others. Previously, she held positions at MASS MoCA and the Weisman Art Museum at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She is interested in questions around performance and embodiment, legibility, and relationships between artistic practices and solidarity movements. She earned an MA from the Williams College and Clark Art Institute Graduate Program in the History of Art in 2023. In September 2025 she participated in the 13th Berlin Biennale's Young Curator's Workshop Fugitive Acts: Art and Politics.

Concert II: Lydian String Quartet presents Beethoven+

The&nbsp;Lydian String Quartet, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Boston, will present the complete string quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven in a series of 8 concerts over two years, culminating with the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death in Spring 2027. Each concert will present two Beethoven quartets framing contemporary works that demonstrate Beethoven’s lasting influence and providing new context for listening and understanding these canonical works in today’s world. Please get your tickets here: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-lydian-string-quartet-beethoven-concert-2-tickets-1715932854359?aff=oddtdtcreator">The Lydian String Quartet: Beethoven+ Concert 2 Tickets, Sun, Jan 18, 2026 at 3:00 PM | Eventbrite</a> Beethoven+ (2025–2027) II. Op. 18, No. 3 Peter Ruzicka (b. 1948)&nbsp;– String Quartet No. 1:&nbsp;Introspezione. Dokumentation&nbsp;(1970) Op. 135 Framed by Beethoven’s earliest completed string quartet and the last major work of his compositional career, this program presents a unique opportunity to witness the development of Beethoven’s musical language. Peter Ruzicka’s&nbsp;Introspezione, a “documentation of mental states during a controlled psychedelic experience” (to quote the score’s preface), offers a hallucinogenic trip through time and space with memories of string quartets by Pfitzner, Webern, as well as Beethoven’s Op. 135 floating through the soundscape. About the Lydian String Quartet From its beginning in 1980, the Lydian Quartet has embraced the full range of the string quartet repertory with curiosity, virtuosity, and dedication to the highest artistic ideals of music making. In its formative years, the Lydians were awarded top prizes in international string quartet competitions, including Evian, Portsmouth and Banff, culminating in 1984 with the Naumburg Award for Chamber Music. In the years to follow, the quartet continued to build a reputation for their depth of interpretation, performing with "a precision and involvement marking them as among the world's best quartets" (Chicago Sun-Times). From the acknowledged masterpieces of the classical, romantic, and modern eras to the remarkable compositions written by today's cutting-edge composers, the Lydian Quartet approaches music-making with a sense of exploration and personal expression that is timeless.

Concert III: Lydian String Quartet presents Beethoven+

The&nbsp;Lydian String Quartet, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Boston, will present the complete string quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven in a series of 8 concerts over two years, culminating with the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death in Spring 2027. Each concert will present two Beethoven quartets framing contemporary works that demonstrate Beethoven’s lasting influence and providing new context for listening and understanding these canonical works in today’s world. Please get your tickets here: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-lydian-string-quartet-beethoven-concert-3-tickets-1715944077929?aff=oddtdtcreator">The Lydian String Quartet: Beethoven+ Concert 3 Tickets, Sun, Feb 22, 2026 at 3:00 PM | Eventbrite</a> Beethoven+ (2025–2027) III. Op. 95 Hans Thomalla (b. 1975)&nbsp;–&nbsp;Bagatellen&nbsp;(2015/16) Op. 59, No. 3 Beethoven’s middle quartets represent the extremes of expansion and compression of form resulting in new kinds of musical expression. His three&nbsp;Razumofsky&nbsp;quartets, Op. 59, presented the world with a bold form of instrumental virtuosity new to the realm of string quartet writing. The classical structures of Haydn and Mozart are expanded and given new life in Op. 59 No. 3, from the ambiguous harmonic soundscape of the introduction recalling Mozart’s&nbsp;Dissonance, to the dazzling fugal finale akin to those found in Haydn’s&nbsp;Sun&nbsp;quartets. In contrast, Beethoven’s&nbsp;Serioso&nbsp;(Op. 95), his shortest and most compact string quartet, strips away all excess to present a potently distilled expression. Hans Thomalla’s&nbsp;Bagatellen&nbsp;carries this distillation of expression to new levels with short explorations of musical gestures, harmonies and melodic patterns. About the Lydian String Quartet From its beginning in 1980, the Lydian Quartet has embraced the full range of the string quartet repertory with curiosity, virtuosity, and dedication to the highest artistic ideals of music making. In its formative years, the Lydians were awarded top prizes in international string quartet competitions, including Evian, Portsmouth and Banff, culminating in 1984 with the Naumburg Award for Chamber Music. In the years to follow, the quartet continued to build a reputation for their depth of interpretation, performing with "a precision and involvement marking them as among the world's best quartets" (Chicago Sun-Times). From the acknowledged masterpieces of the classical, romantic, and modern eras to the remarkable compositions written by today's cutting-edge composers, the Lydian Quartet approaches music-making with a sense of exploration and personal expression that is timeless.

Concert IV: Lydian String Quartet presents Beethoven+

The Lydian String Quartet, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Boston, will present the complete string quartets of Ludwig van Beethoven in a series of 8 concerts over two years, culminating with the 200th anniversary of Beethoven’s death in Spring 2027. Each concert will present two Beethoven quartets framing contemporary works that demonstrate Beethoven’s lasting influence and providing new context for listening and understanding these canonical works in today’s world. Please get your tickets here: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-lydian-string-quartet-beethoven-concert-4-tickets-1715959534159?aff=oddtdtcreator">The Lydian String Quartet: Beethoven+ Concert 4 Tickets, Fri, May 29, 2026 at 7:30 PM | Eventbrite</a> Beethoven+ (2025–2027) IV. Op. 18 No. 2 Reena Esmail (b. 1983) – Zeher (Poison) (2018) Op. 132 Beethoven’s Op. 18 No. 2 is a brilliant demonstration of the young composer attempting to make a name for himself in the Vienna of Mozart and Haydn. In contrast, with its celestial Heiliger Dankgesang central slow movement, Op. 132 represents late Beethoven at his most passionate and profound, transcending traditional form and content. In this program, the Heiliger Dankgesang, Beethoven’s “song of thanksgiving to God for recovery from an illness, in the lydian mode” is the antidote for Indian-American composer Reena Esmail’s Zeher (Poison), her personal response to “the feelings of frustration, defeat, and feeling of complete and literal voicelessness” experienced during an illness. Zeher was commissioned by Brooklyn Rider as a contemporary response to Beethoven’s Op. 132 for their album Healing Modes. About the Lydian String Quartet From its beginning in 1980, the Lydian Quartet has embraced the full range of the string quartet repertory with curiosity, virtuosity, and dedication to the highest artistic ideals of music making. In its formative years, the Lydians were awarded top prizes in international string quartet competitions, including Evian, Portsmouth and Banff, culminating in 1984 with the Naumburg Award for Chamber Music. In the years to follow, the quartet continued to build a reputation for their depth of interpretation, performing with "a precision and involvement marking them as among the world's best quartets" (Chicago Sun-Times). From the acknowledged masterpieces of the classical, romantic, and modern eras to the remarkable compositions written by today's cutting-edge composers, the Lydian Quartet approaches music-making with a sense of exploration and personal expression that is timeless.

Book Talk: Thomas Blubacher presents "Weimar under the Palms"

In the early twentieth century, Pacific Palisades was home to America's most modern film studio of the time as well as the proposed site of the world's largest Christian center. But by the end of the 1920s, the Los Angeles neighborhood had become the refuge of the rich and beautiful as cultural and intellectual giants of the Weimar Republic fled Europe. Figures such as Thomas Mann, Salka and Berthold Viertel, and Lion Feuchtwanger, turned Pacific Palisades into a “Weimar under the palm trees.” Recounting a story of glamor and great minds, Thomas Blubacher tells of the history of German-speaking exiles that is still alive there today, going on a foray through the film industry, taking us on a journey to this special place which was so recently devastated by fire and whose history deserves to be celebrated — now more than ever. Free, please RSVP: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/weimar-under-the-palms-tickets-1617725563709?aff=oddtdtcreator">"Weimar under the Palms" Tickets, Sat, Oct 25, 2025 at 3:30 PM | Eventbrite</a> Thomas Blubacher&nbsp;has written over thirty books and has worked as a theater director in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. A specialist on theater and film of the 1930s, his books include biographies of the siblings Eleonora and Francesco von Mendelssohn, Gustaf Gründgens, Oscar Wälterlin, Ruth Landshoff-Yorck, and Ruth Hellberg. He has also written essays and travel features, and has published a bestselling book on cruises and several historical crime novels. Elisabeth (Liz) Lauffer&nbsp;is a German-English literary translator based in the US. She received a B.A. in German Studies from Wesleyan University and Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Her career in literary translation began in 2014, when she won the Gutekunst Prize for Emerging Translators. In cooperation with the Boston Book Festival.

Weston Olencki | Webb Crawford | Victoria Cheah

Goethe-Institut Boston and Non-Event present an evening of experimental composition and free improvisation from Berlin, Boston, and New York. Please buy tickets here: <a href="https://nonevent.ticketspice.com/olencki-crawford--cheah">Olencki / Crawford / Cheah</a> About the Artists Weston Olencki&nbsp;is an artist and musician from South Carolina, living now in Berlin. Their projects position musical instruments as sites of cultural inscription, working fluidly between experimental sound, traditional musics, and their various space/time(s). Weston has previously performed at the Borealis Festival, Counterflows, Donaueschinger Musiktage, Lampo, Musica Nova (as a soloist with the Helsinki Philharmonic), Märzmusik, Black Mountain College, philharmonie luxembourg, HKW, Festival Musica, the American Academy in Rome, Roulette Intermedium, Jalopy Theatre, Fylkingen, Pioneer Works, and more. They have held guest residencies at the University of Huddersfield, Harvard, NYU, Columbia, Princeton, Stanford, Northwestern, and have been a visiting artist at CalArts (2018), Stoveworks (2023), suddenlyLISTEN (2024), and EMS Stockholm (2025). Their solo discography includes&nbsp;Verd Mont&nbsp;(SUPERPANG, 2021),&nbsp;Old Time Music&nbsp;(Tripticks Tapes, 2022),&nbsp;pearls ground down to powder&nbsp;(Full Spectrum, 2024),&nbsp;I went to the dance&nbsp;(Longform Editions, 2024) and&nbsp;Broadsides&nbsp;(Outside Time, 2025), with other recording projects released by PAGANS, Dinzu Artefacts, Lobby Art, Astral Spirits, Out of Your Head, Sound American, HatHut, and Astral Spirits. They are an active member of RAGE THORMBONES and APPARAT, and perform in many contexts on low brass instruments, winds, banjo, and electronics. Webb Crawford&nbsp;is a guitarist, tenor banjoist, and instrument-builder working within free improvisation, new music, and electro-acoustic music. As a builder and performer, they focus on modern reconstructions and re-contextualizations of historical stringed instruments. As a guitarist and banjoist they have developed a percussive approach to both instruments and draw influence from Piedmont-style fingerpicking, “chicken-picking”, permutations, and the chop-and-screw nature of harsh noise. They have worked with Chris Corsano, Trevor Dunn, Jessica Pavone and others, including ongoing projects with Michael Foster, Chuck Roth, Zosha Warpeha, Jack Langdon and Sean Ali. Their solo record “Joiners” was released to acclaim on TripTicks Tapes in 2022. Victoria Cheah&nbsp;is a composer whose work concerns boundaries, transitions, sustained effort, and intimacies within social-performance rituals. Her work has been commissioned and/or featured by ensembles and presenters including Talujon, Either/Or, Non-Event, Switch Ensemble, Line Upon Line, Han Chen, andPlay, Yarn/Wire, Wavefield Ensemble, MATA Festival, Guerilla Opera, Ensemble Dal Niente, Vertixe Sonora, Marilyn Nonken, PRISM Quartet, and performed by others. Recordings of their music can be found on Dinzu Artefacts, New Focus Recordings, and XAS Records. Cheah currently serves as Assistant Professor at Berklee College of Music and Boston Conservatory, as well as Director of Production of Talea Ensemble. From 2011-2015, Cheah served as the founding executive director of Boston new music sinfonietta Sound Icon. She has worked with ensembles and festivals including Composers Conference, Manhattan Sinfonietta, Argento Chamber Ensemble, Composit Festival, and Cantata Profana towards the realization of contemporary music events in New York, Boston (USA) and Rieti (IT). Previously, Cheah has taught music, research, and writing related courses as an instructor at Longy School of Music, Brandeis University, and as a teaching fellow at Harvard University. As a composer, she has attended academies including Sommerakademie Schloss Solitude, Darmstadt, Fontainebleau, VIPA, SICPP, The Walden School, and others. Cheah holds a B.A. in music from City University of New York Hunter College (Macaulay Honors College) and a Ph.D. in music composition &amp; theory from Brandeis University.

Site-specific Exhibition: THE OTHER ONE

OPENING with PERFORMANCE by ELANA KATZ in cooperation with DARIO SRBIC: October 10, 2025, 6:00 PM - 8:00 PM PANEL DISCUSSION and FINISSAGE: October 14, 2025, 7:00 PM EXHIBITION HOURS: October 11 - 14, 2025, 12:00 PM - 7:00 PM The Other One&nbsp;is a site-specific performative exhibition by HEW (House for the End of the World), featuring the work of three interdisciplinary artists and presented in October at Goethe Institut Boston and subsequently at Kwadrat Galerie in Berlin, Germany. The project confronts the topics of dependency, displacement, and distortion through live performance, AI-driven sculpture, and sound installation. HEW, a nomadic contemporary art platform founded in Berlin by Elana Katz in 2020, presents its first edition outside of Germany. Through endurance-based performance, Katz's work activates the space and triggers Dario Srbić's AI-driven 3D printer — a non-human performer translating her ephemeral gestures into sculptural artifacts. Joshua Fineberg's spatialized sound environment immerses viewers in a visual-sonic experience that induces a sense of disorientation. The core conceptual themes of dependency, displacement, and distortion consider and reshape the notion of perception and interaction, encouraging reflection on shifting histories, the fragility of place, and the transitory nature of belonging. This installation is made possible by generous support from the Internationaler Koproduktionsfonds, Goethe-Institut, HEW (House for the End of the World), KWADRAT Galerie Berlin and Boston University. We are grateful to present this installation in teh context of the first Boston Public Art Triennial.&nbsp; HEW Artist Biographies Joshua Fineberg&nbsp;is a composer of contemporary/experimental classical music and sound artist. He has won numerous awards and his music is published by Editions Max Eschig, Gérard Billaudot Editeur and BabelScores. Fineberg’s works are widely performed in the US, Europe and Asia and CD’s are available from Universal France’s Accord/Una Corda collection, Mode Records and Métier Records. He has taught at IRCAM, Columbia and Harvard Universities, and currently teaches at Boston University where he serves as the Founding Director of the Boston University Center for New Music. In 2016 he was named a Chévalier of arts and letters by France. Over the last decade has become involved in immersive/participatory works and site-specific experiences.His art deals with intense experiences, strange and disorienting environments that allow one suddenly re-orient into new and unexpected perspectives. He seeks to create experiences that one does not merely passively observe but which are happening to the visitor.&nbsp; Elana Katz&nbsp;is a conceptual artist and curator working primarily with the medium of performance art. Katz’s work often examines memory, post-memory, and means of processing traumatic experience. She aims to provoke experiences of unlearning the assumed. Katz’s exhibitions and performances include the Royal Museum of Fine Arts of Belgium (2011), Diehl CUBE, Berlin (2013), PPOW Gallery, New York (2013), IEEB7 Biennial of Bucharest (2017), KWADRAT Berlin (2017-25), DFBRL8R Performance Art Gallery, Chicago (2019), Passagen Art Gallery Linköping, Sweden with her recent solo exhibition The Future Has No Memory (2024-25), and the Museum of Sundsvall, Sweden (2019-20), where her work was acquired into the museum's permanent collection. She studied at the Parsons School of Design in New York and the Universität der Künste Berlin (class of Katharina Sieverding), from which she earned a Meisterschulerin title in 2010. Katz is a recipient of the Franklin Furnace Fund for Performance Art (2011) and worked as a re-performer of Marina Abramovic’s work in The Artist is Present at MoMA, New York (2010). In 2020, Katz founded the Berlin-based nomadic contemporary art space House for the End of the World (HEW) in cooperation with Galerie KWADRAT, where she curates a program focused on site- specificity. Dario Srbic&nbsp;was born in former Yugoslavia and currently lives in Berlin, Germany and London, UK. Srbic's work navigates the complex terrain where algorithms, particularly artificial cognition, intersect with realms of emotional sentience and 3D printing. In his practice, Dario intertwines machine learning with biometrical data and 3D-printing processes to sculpturally manifest the intricate dance of sensuousness and desire, such as the interplay between fear and excitement. At its core lie concepts of emergence and complex adaptive systems, in which artificial agents do not simply generate and replicate sculptures but are participants in cognitive and artistic processes, evolving from simple training to active learning through various forms of reinforcement learning. Furthermore, the practice reimagines the concept of "translation", specifically through the reinterpretation of algorithms in 3D printing. Here, machine learning frameworks breathe life into static algorithms, fostering a dynamic interplay between reinforcement learning agents, language models, and simulated environments. Merging diverse philosophical approaches, the artist constructs a landscape where art is understood as an emergent phenomenon within complex, distributed systems, challenging conventional distinctions between artificial and sentient, subject and object, form and matter. His exploration of the "ready-made" in a digital context challenges traditional art narratives, questioning the nature of replication and originality in the age of 3D printing. Dario holds a PhD from the Royal College of Art of London. His work has been in numerous publications including the Journal of Philosophy of Photography and is held in the Ursula Blickle Videoarchive.

Foreign Correspondent Unplugged

Join the American Council on Germany and the Goethe-Institut for an installment of our Foreign Correspondent Unplugged series, which delves into current political debates on both sides of the Atlantic. 6:00 pm – Doors open, 6:30 pm – Discussion begins Free admission, please register here: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/democracy-under-pressure-tickets-1707811804079?aff=oddtdtcreator">Democracy under Pressure Tickets, Tue, Oct 7, 2025 at 6:00 PM | Eventbrite</a> Democracy in both Germany and the United States faces mounting challenges, from rising political polarization to declining trust in institutions and practices. This event will explore how these pressures are reshaping politics and public life on both sides of the Atlantic. Join us for a timely discussion with award-winning journalists&nbsp;Vladimir Balzer&nbsp;(Deutschlandradio) and&nbsp;Dr. Melanie Amann&nbsp;(DER SPIEGEL) about political trends in Germany and challenges to democracy 35 years after German unity. The event will be moderated by the President of the American Council on Germany,&nbsp;Dr. Steven E. Sokol. The panelists Dr. Melanie Amann&nbsp;studied Law in Trier, Aix-en-Provence and Berlin and received her doctorate from the LMU Munich. From 2003 to 2004, she spent a year at the German School of Journalism in Munich. After working as an editor at the&nbsp;Financial Times Deutschland, the&nbsp;F.A.Z.&nbsp;and the&nbsp;F.A.S., she moved to&nbsp;SPIEGEL&nbsp;in Berlin in 2013. Since February 2019, she has headed&nbsp;SPIEGEL's capital city bureau, together with Sebastian Fischer, Christoph Hickmann and Martin Knobbe. She has been a member of the editorial board since May 2021. Vladimir Balzer is an award-winning radio journalist and moderator at&nbsp;Deutschlandradio. He grew up in Leipzig and studied in Dublin, Venice, and Leipzig. He began his career as a presenter, reporter, and editor at&nbsp;Deutschlandradio&nbsp;and&nbsp;MDR. Mr. Balzer hosts, among other programs, the daily program “Fazit – Kultur vom Tage” on&nbsp;Deutschlandfunk Kultur. In 2022, he was selected to be a Kellen Fellow by the American Council on Germany. In 2023, he started as a correspondent at the Capital Studios of&nbsp;Deutschlandfunk&nbsp;in Berlin. He is known as a commentator for German Television, such as&nbsp;ZDF. He also regularly reports for his broadcaster from the United States. Dr. Steven E. Sokol&nbsp;(moderator) has been the President and CEO of the American Council on Germany since 2015. Previously, he served as President and CEO of the World Affairs Council of Pittsburgh and prior to that he was the Vice President and Director of Programs at the American Council on Germany. Earlier in his career, Dr. Sokol worked at the Aspen Institute Berlin and in the Berlin office of the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He holds a Doctorate from Northeastern University as well as an M.A. from the Johns Hopkins University’s Paul Nitze School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a B.A. from Wesleyan University. He has also studied at the Ruprecht-Karls-Universität in Heidelberg and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Freie Universität in Berlin.

Arneis Quartet presents Susie Ibarra

Free, please RSVP: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/arneis-quartet-presents-susie-ibarras-parallels-and-confluence-tickets-1409412132629?aff=oddtdtcreator">Arneis Quartet presents Susie Ibarra’s Parallels and Confluence Tickets, Boston | Eventbrite</a> On the heels of her 2025 Pulitzer Prize in music, singular Filipinx-American composer, percussionist, and sound artist Susie Ibarra comes to the Goethe-Institut Boston with a program featuring tales of collecting sound over time in remote, rustic corners of the world. Her recent work will be brought to life by dynamic mezzo-soprano Alicia Hall Moran; longtime collaborators violist Daniel Doña, pianist Alex Peh, and the Arneis Quartet (violinists Heather Braun and Rose Drucker, violist Daniel Doña, and cellist Agnes Kim); and the composer herself on percussion. Biochemist and climate scientist Daniel Ibarra rounds out an evening rooted in nature and climate – enduring preoccupations of the artist that will be explored in this program. The program will include Parallels and Confluence: Bugang and Pasig Rivers, scored for piano quintet, a love song for two Filipino rivers—one, the most pristine, and the other, the most polluted, but both of great ecological, cultural, and historical importance. The piece incorporates river sounds captured with sound engineer-field recordist Jake Landau, as well as elements of bird songs endemic to the region. On kulintang, the composer will join Doña for Laktawan at Tumalon (Skip and Jump), a piece that recalls the feeling and lightness felt by the young Ibarra, moving from stone to stone across streams in the river systems of Houston bayous. Moran and Doña will perform Pasig River, a kundiman from her new song cycles, CHAN: Sonnets and Devotions in the Wilderness, commissioned and premiered this year in Berlin by MaerzMusik Berliner Festspiele and produced with her fellowship in music and sound with the DAAD Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. These works are included in a trilogy of new compositions, including her Pulitzer Prize-winning work, Sky Islands, to be released on September 12, with celebrations in Berlin, Manila, Boston, and New York City.

Helmut Lachenmann @ 90

On the occasion of the 90th birthday of Helmut Lachenmann, one of the most influential and deeply visionary composers of the last 100 years, the Goethe-Institut Boston hosts a mini-symposium with composition students and professors from New England. Six informal presentations by a variety of mainly Boston-area composers, historians and musicians give insight into his work and are the basis for a discussion on Lachenmann's unique sound world and his continuing influence on composers today. The goal of the following discussion is to formulate a list of questions for the composer in an upcoming internal zoom conversation for composition and other interested students. The mini-symposium is free and open to the interested public. Please rsvp here: <a href="https://www.eventbrite.com/e/helmut-lachenmann-90-tickets-1730904705569?aff=oddtdtcreator">Helmut Lachenmann @ 90 Tickets, Sat, Oct 4, 2025 at 10:00 AM | Eventbrite</a> SCHEDULE Rick Burkhardt: Resonance - Helmut Lachenmann's Allegro Sostenuto 10:00–10:30 AM&nbsp; Helmut Lachenmann’s Allegro Sostenuto takes as its material the dynamic envelope of notes played on the piano, and explores artificially altering that envelope by combining it with the varied, controllable dynamic envelopes of the clarinet of cello. This presentation investigates how such alterations inform the formal structures of the piece, analyzing the piece’s first section in detail, and proposing a way of hearing the form of the entire piece in relation to discoveries from that analysis. Richard Carrick: Performing Salut für Caudwell&nbsp; 10:30–11:00 AM Stephen Drury:&nbsp;Serynade: Melodies, resonances, silences 11:00-11:30 AM&nbsp; An investigation of Lachenmann's major work for piano solo, its techniques and sonic implications. Block chords, figurations, repeated articulations, and sympathetic resonances combine to create an emotionally evocative and visionary spiritual journey. The resources of the piano are expanded by careful compositional attention, provoking an intimate and compelling degree of listening guided by a clear and exquisite formal structure. BREAK 11:30–11:45 AM Rebecca Marchand:&nbsp;Darstellung v. Notieren: Considering Dimensionality in Graphic Notation 11:45 AM – 12:15 PM In a 1970 interview with Ursula Stürzbecher, Helmut Lachenman used the phrase "graphische Darstellung" (versus "Notieren") to describe notations in&nbsp;Pression and Guero. This work-in-progress probes the possible significance of that phrase, suggesting that it might be more than just an issue of semantics and could ultimately provide a keener and more specific analytical taxonomy for discussing graphic notation. Nima Janmohammadi:&nbsp;That rare joy of listening... 12:15–12:45 PM In this presentation, I examine the generative properties of musical objects in Lachenmann’s&nbsp;Zwei Gefühle&nbsp;(1992), tracing how a basic musical idea evolves into large-scale form. I will show how these generative properties permeate every dimension of the musical material—harmony, timbre, temporal treatment, and the morphology of gestures. In particular, I will highlight how musical objects themselves act as formative agents, shaping dynamics, acoustical oppositions, temporal proportions, and ultimately the overall architecture of the work. Efstratios Minakakis:&nbsp;Architectonics of Sonic Design: Towards a Gestural Syntax in Lachenmann’s “Grido” 12:45–1:15 PM This presentation proposes a method of conceptualizing aspects of gestural syntax in Lachenmann’s work and applies it to an extended passage of his third string quartet,&nbsp;Grido. The method complements Lachenmann’s idea of sound-types (1966/91) with analytical tools adapted from Dora A. Hanninen’s “Theory of Analysis.” Using the latter, I organize individual sound morphemes into associative sets and examine how they interact with each other and evolve into a network of associative landscapes. I further address how the mechanics of their interaction and evolution create syntactical implications that inform the larger sonic design. LUNCH BREAK 1:15–3:15 PM DISCUSSION &amp; QUESTIONS FOR HELMUT LACHENMANN 3:15–5:30 PM

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