BEYOND THE ATLANTIC
A New Transatlantic Dialogue for Music and Culture
MISSION
Beyond the Atlantic is a hybrid music event hosted by the Goethe Institute Boston that brings together members of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Ecce Ensemble in talks, panels, presentations, and performances.
Together we endeavor to explore the state of concert music and the transatlantic dialogue in the 21st Century.
John Cage’s “Lecture on Nothing (Silence).” 1949. A notable presenter at the Darmstadt Ferienkurse in the 20th Century.
In recent decades, technological innovations, environmental collapse, and political upheaval have created both challenges and opportunities for creative artists, but the shifting landscapes of art, culture and economy have impacted the relationship between composers and audiences. In a contentious cultural environment, and lacking stable systems of patronage, concert music no longer holds a privileged place in society for mutual discovery and shared understanding of human aspiration.
Beyond the Atlantic brings together American and European performers and composers to consider the next chapter in our historic transatlantic relationship. How can it be reinvigorated to address the current social, political and environmental moment? And can classical music, in its abilities to express the most delicate and demanding communication between its performers and composers, ignite new ways of informing our political and cultural dialogue?
Henri Dutilleux after the Boston Symphony performance of “Shadow of Time” for Orchestra and Children’s Chorus. An example of great transatlantic collaborations of the 20th Century.
Through the 20th Century, a dialogue between Europe and the United States transformed the world of concert music. Many of the composers who resisted the rise of Soviet Russia, Nazi Germany and other autocratic European movements came to America to continue composing in a welcoming and democratic environment. After World War II, a new phase in the transatlantic alliance fostered a new kind of internationalism and a rich cultural environment for musical thought and practice.
Arthur Honegger’s Symphony No. 1. The Boston Symphony Orchestra’s First European Commission (1930).
EVENTS
OCTOBER 22nd 6PM. Goethe Institut Boston. 180 Beacon St. Boston.
Guest Daniel Mallampalli and members of the Boston Symphony Orchestra visit to share excerpts of works that exemplify the different approaches but shared aspirations of concert music from the 20th and 21st Centuries.
Moderators:
Daniel Mallampalli, Assistant Vice President, Artistic Planning, Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Martin Brody, Catherine Mills Davis Professor Emeritus, Wellesley College.
Alexander Rehding, Fanny Peabody Professor of Music, Harvard University.
OCTOBER 23rd. 6PM. Goethe Institut Boston. 180 Beacon St. Boston.
Members of the Berlin Philharmonic share a public workshop on the performer’s perspective on gesture, virtuosity, and musical communication.
Moderators:
Martin Brody.Catherine Mills Davis Professor Emeritus, Wellesley College.
Alexander Rehding, Fanny Peabody Professor of Music, Harvard University.
Composers John Aylward, Grace Hughes, and David Philip Hefti
OCTOBER 24th. 6PM. Goethe Institut Boston. 180 Beacon St. Boston, MA.
Ecce Ensemble and guests share new works by Yu-Hui CHANG, David Philip HEFTI, Martin BRODY, John AYLWARD, Karlheinz STOCKHAUSEN and Isabel MUNDRY.
6PM pre-event talk with Alexander Rehding and Guests. 7PM Event. 8PM Reception
PERFORMERS
Award-winning flutist and pianist Lily Xie is Ecce Ensemble’s flutist. She has been praised by the South Florida Classical Review for her “impeccable dexterity and technical security.” Her meticulous dedication and fiery passion for music have propelled her to prestigious stages across North America, Asia, and Europe.
Lily earned First Prize at The Seventh International Competitions of Young Musicians in Vladivostok, Russia (2012), and achieved double gold medals in both the solo and chamber music divisions at the Nanning International Flute Competition (2013). She is a proud recipient of the esteemed Henry Mancini Institute (HMI) Fellowship.
Lily has recorded with the Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra on Smile (2020) for Nurse Heroes Live!, collaborating with celebrated artists including Andrea Bocelli, Stevie Wonder, Céline Dion, and David Foster. She recorded Luciano Berio’s Sequenza I (1958) and Folk Songs (1964) with Ensemble Ibis in Miami for the Frost New Music “Year in Review” (2021) and Bernard Rands’ Canti Del Sole (1984) with the Oberlin Contemporary Music Ensemble for the album Rands At Oberlin, released on the Oberlin Music Record Label in 2019.
Alexander Bader, BTA workshop guest, studied the clarinet with Manfred Preis and Peter Rieckhoff in Berlin. In 1990 he became a member of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie of Bremen, moving in 2002 to Berlin’s Komische Oper. Bader, who also devotes himself to historical performance practice on original instruments and appears regularly with such ensembles as the Vienna Concentus Musicus, Balthasar Neumann Ensemble and Berlin’s Akademie für Alte Musik, has been a member of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Scharoun Ensemble since 2006.
Jordan Hadrill is Ecce Ensemble’s violinist. She is deeply passionate about modern music. She has performed with the Berlin Camerata and alongside François-Xavier Poizat as part of the Winners and Masters concert series. After moving to Boston, she collaborated with Steven Mackey to present his works in BSO’s What I Hear Prelude concert and joined New England Conservatory’s new music ensemble [nec]shivaree to present Ligeti’s Chamber Concerto in Symphony Hall for the BSO’s celebration of Ligeti’s 100th birthday. She has also been coached by Christian Wolff to present his Small Duos for Violins, and has collaborated with Donald Berman as part of a project to perform the complete Ives sonatas. In 2024, Jordan was a recipient of NEC’s John Cage Award for Outstanding Contribution to Contemporary Performance.
As an educator, she has worked with Tufts University’s Community Music program, New England Conservatory’s Preparatory School, The Croft School, and Boston Music Project, as well as with Immigrant Family Services Institute through New England Conservatory’s Community Performances & Partnerships program. She has attended the Castleman Quartet Program, the Aspen Music Festival and School, the Boston University Tanglewood Institute, and the Bowdoin International Music Festival and School.
Ulrich Knoerzer, BTA workshop guest, started playing viola after having had violin lessons for three years. In the 1970s he won three times the first prize in the German National Youth competition. He studied with Rainer Moog in Cologne and Karen Tuttle in New York. Other teachers were Max Rostal, Sandor Vegh and Yuri Bashmet. With the Mannheimer String Quartet he won several competitions including Evian/France. Ulrich Knoerzer joined the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1990 and was a member of the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin until 2006. He is teaching viola at the University of Arts Berlin and gives masterclasses in Europe and Japan. His soloistic appearances are including performances of Bartok’s Viola Concerto, a piece in which he is taking a particular interest.
Robbie Bui, Ecce’s cellist, is a contemporary musician whose playing has been regarded for its intense physicality and fervent energy. Complemented by his additional background in composition, he puts deep consideration into music’s theoretical construction blocks to yield corporeally gripping performances. The crux of his musical work involves bringing the new and the unexpected to the foreground.
Bui has been dedicated dozens of works by living composers in both solo and chamber settings. He has appeared as a soloist in several places including the McGill Schulich School of Music, Koussevitzky Shed, Seiji Ozawa Hall, Jordan Hall, Conrad Prebys Music Center, Mandeville Auditorium, and Coronado Public Library.
Bui is currently recognized in ensembles such as La Jolla Symphony, Pacific Lyric Association, Palimpsest Ensemble, and Alinéa Ensemble. Among numerous honors, Robbie has won Best Contemporary Performance Prize of the La Jolla Symphony Young Artists Competition, as well as New England Conservatory’s Honors Ensemble Competition 2018, Orchestral Composition Competition 2019, and Contemporary Ensemble Competitions 2020.
Peter Riegelbauer, organizer and BTA workshop guest, was educated by Georg Hörtnagel in Nuremberg and Rainer Zepperitz in Berlin. Before joining the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1981, Riegelbauer played for three years in the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and during this time co-founded the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and the Ensemble Modern. In 1983, he and his Philharmonic colleagues founded the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin. Since joining the Philharmonic, Peter Riegelbauer has played a key role in promoting the orchestra’s self-determination in its committees: from 1969 to 2015, he was a member of the orchestra’s board and the foundation’s board of trustees. From 2015 to 2023, he headed the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic.
A multidimensional pianist, pedagogue, and scholar, Donald Berman has won tremendous acclaim for his "stupendous abilities, both athletic and intellectual" (Boston Sunday Globe) and performances hailed as "stunning, adventurous, and substantive" (New York Times).
With an emphasis on presenting American music of the 20th and 21st centuries, Berman's inventive recital programs have been featured on the biggest stages for contemporary music across North America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. An enthusiastic commissioner of new music, he has added more than 200 works to the contemporary canon — many of which he performs alongside classical repertoires to provoke new and fascinating revelations and connections across periods and styles.
Berman's body of work as a recording artist demonstrates his engagement with the music of our time. His albums have included numerous world-premiere recordings and illuminating performances of previously unknown works of 20th-century American composers, including Charles Ives, Carl Ruggles, Elliott Carter, and Roger Sessions. As a concerto soloist and chamber musician, Berman's discography includes collaborations with the Boston Modern Orchestra Project, soprano Susan Narucki, and the Borromeo Quartet.
A former fellow of the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, Berman currently serves as Chair of Keyboard Studies at Longy School of Music of Bard College and leads Tufts University's New Music Ensemble. He is also the General Editor of three volumes of Ives's Shorter Works for Piano and President and Treasurer of the Charles Ives Society.
ORGANIZERS
Martin Brody is Catherine Mills Davis Professor Emeritus at Wellesley College. He served as composer in residence at the American Academy in Rome in 2001-2 and as Andrew Heiskell Arts Director of the Academy from 2007 to 2010. As a composer, he has received grants and awards from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Fromm Foundation, Guggenheim Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts, among others. He has also served as resident composer at the Bogliasco Foundation and La Mortella. He has written extensively about modern music during the Cold War, with special emphasis on the music of Milton Babbitt, Elliott Carter, and Stefan Wolpe. He is currently President of the Stefan Wolpe Society, Director of One Landscape—an arts and conservation organization—and a trustee of the American Academy in Rome.
Peter Riegelbauer was educated by Georg Hörtnagel in Nuremberg and Rainer Zepperitz in Berlin. Before joining the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1981, Riegelbauer played for three years in the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie and during this time co-founded the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie and the Ensemble Modern. In 1983, he and his Philharmonic colleagues founded the Scharoun Ensemble Berlin. Since joining the Philharmonic, Peter Riegelbauer has played a key role in promoting the orchestra’s self-determination in its committees: from 1969 to 2015, he was a member of the orchestra’s board and the foundation’s board of trustees. From 2015 to 2023, he headed the Karajan Academy of the Berlin Philharmonic.
As both composer and conductor, David Philip Hefti is one of Switzerland’s outstanding musical personalities. He has written over 100 works spanning orchestral, vocal, and chamber music. His artistry has been recognized with major distinctions, including the Composer Prize of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation (2013), the Hindemith Prize of the Schleswig-Holstein Music Festival (2015), and the Composer Award of the International Classical Music Awards ICMA (2023). He is also a laureate of the International Composition Competition of the Pablo Casals Festival in Prades, the George Enescu International Competition in Bucharest, and the Gustav Mahler International Competition in Vienna. Hefti’s works have been performed under conductors such as Peter Eötvös, Kent Nagano, Jonathan Nott, Kazuki Yamada, Giancarlo Guerrero, Andris Poga, Mario Venzago, and many others. His chamber music and vocal partners include Juliane Banse, Mojca Erdmann, Benjamin Appl, Antje Weithaas, Baiba Skride, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Lawrence Power, Christian Poltéra, and Jan Vogler. As composer and conductor, Hefti has collaborated with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra, the Bavarian State Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre symphonique de Montréal, the Ensemble Modern, and the Berlin Baroque Soloists. He has appeared at festivals including Wien Modern, Ultraschall Berlin, the Lucerne Festival, the Dvořák Festival in Prague, Beijing Modern, and the Suntory Festival in Tokyo.
The Boston Globe has described John Aylward’s music as being “delicate and deep, all at once”, and Gramophone has called Aylward’s music “mysterious, iridescent and daring”. The Canadian new music review Textura remarked that Aylward’s recent monodrama Angelus was “gripping music of a high order”, and that, “the manner by which Aylward conjoins his vocal and instrumental elements in the work sometimes calls to mind Berg’s handling of orchestration in Wozzeck and Lulu.”
Aylward’s recent awards and fellowships include those from the John S. Guggenheim Foundation, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Radcliffe Institute at Harvard University, the Koussevitzky Commission from the Library of Congress, the Fromm Foundation, MacDowell, Tanglewood, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, First Prize from the International Society for Contemporary Music, and many others. More about John’s music can be found at johnaylward.com.
SUPPORT THE PROJECT
Beyond The Atlantic is supported by initiatives from Ecce Arts Inc., which is in turn supported by the Alice Ditson Foundation, The Amphion Foundation, The Ernst von Siemens Foundation, The French American Cultural Exchange and numerous other foundations and institutions.
In addition to institutional support, local and regional patrons of contemporary concert music make up a crucial aspect of Beyond The Atlantic’s funding.
Consider joining Ecce Arts’ community of patrons and supporters by attending an event, commissioning a composer, or sponsoring one of our global arts project. Learn more at: https://www.eccearts.com/donate