Jan Vogler & Amanda Gorman: An Evening of Poetry and Bach (February 2024)

On Saturday, February 17, cellist Jan Vogler and inaugural poet Amanda Gorman performed together at Carnegie Hall in New York, presenting a joint concert evening: Amanda Gorman’s contemporary poetry met the 300-year-old music of Johann Sebastian Bach. Together, Gorman and Vogler explored the meeting of these two worlds, building a bridge between Bach’s immortal music and Gorman’s visionary poetry. Jan Vogler played Bach’s first, third and fifth cello suites while Amanda Gorman recited her poems.

“We’re bringing something from the past into a modern, contemporary feel. And we’re doing it with poetry that I have never performed with music before,” says Amanda Gorman

“Poetry, there’s this in between the words, and with music, it’s the same — in between the notes, actually, the real message happens,” says Jan Vogler. “The whole Bach suites are about humanity, about feelings, about lows and highs.”

Amanda Gorman is a young American poet, writer and activist who performed her poem “The Hill We Climb” at Joe Biden’s inauguration in 2021. With her then 22 years, she was the youngest poet ever to perform at the inauguration of a US president.

Amanda Gorman & Jan Vogler, February 17, 2024 (c) Chris Lee

The Wagner Cycles: Making-Of Rheingold (February 2024)

A Project of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele
under the artistic directorship of Jan Vogler and Kent Nagano

In “The Wagner Cycles”, the individual works of Richard Wagner’s tetralogy will be performed in concert in a special collaboration between the Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln. Der Ring des Nibelungen will be re-examined, rehearsed and performed – in the artistic context of the time when it was first produced, on the basis of the most recent research on Wagner and historical performance practice, flanked by a comprehensive framework programme.

Last year, the project included the celebrated tour of Das Rheingold with musicians from the Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln as well as renowned soloists at the Dresden Kulturpalast, Cologne Philharmonie, the Ravello Festival and the Lucerne Festival.

The making-of video of Das Rheingold on YouTube gives a deeper insight into the project:

Jan Vogler: Concerts with Amanda Gorman and at the Dresdner Musikfestspielen (February 2024)

After cellist and director of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele Jan Vogler has devoted himself very much to contemporary composers in recent years (including Three Continents by Nico Muhly, Sven Helbig, Zhou Long and the world premiere of Sean Sheperd’s On a clear day in New York), he is embarking on a new musical journey: on February 17th with a special concert format with inaugural-poet Amanda Gorman. Together they will perform a concert evening with Bach’s cello suites and spoken word at Carnegie Hall in New York City.

In May, Jan Vogler will perform a program with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under the direction of Anna Rakitina with works by Miklós Rózsa, an important Hungarian-American film composer. On June 4, Jan Vogler will play Anna Clyne’s cello concerto Dance with the London Philharmonia Orchestra and Santtu-Matias Rouvali. Both concerts belong to this year’s program of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele.

 

Amanda Gorman & Jan Vogler at Carnegie Hall (October 2023)

History-making Presidential inaugural poet and bestselling author Amanda Gorman and internationally acclaimed cellist Jan Vogler share the stage for the first time at Stern Auditorium / Perelman Stage at Carnegie Hall on Saturday, February 17, 2024 at 8pm, in an evening of spoken word and music featuring the award-winning poetry of Ms. Gorman and the Cello Suites of J.S. Bach, offering a message of hope and humanity. Tickets are on sale today. 

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Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” with the Dresdner Festspielorchester & Concerto Köln at the Dresdner Musikfestspiele (June 2023)

With standing ovations, the audience celebrated the team of the Wagner Project of the Dresdner Musikfestspiele at the performance on Wednesday – under the direction of Kent Nagano, the musicians of the Dresdner Festspielorchester and Concerto Köln and soloists presented Wagner’s “Das Rheingold” in historically informed performance practice. But it is the intensive work of the scientific team around PD Dr. Kai Hinrich Müller that gives this project its uniqueness and relevance in working with Wagner’s music. In the press lounge last Tuesday, the scientific insights as well as backgrounds of the project were discussed with, among others, Intendant of the Musikfestspiele Jan Vogler, a synopsis can be found here.

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Jan Vogler’s video interview at the TANCKSTELLE (June 2023)

TANCKSTELLE with Jan Vogler and Fanny Tanck – “In this episode (16) the well-known cellist, music missionary and festival founder/leader Jan Vogler makes a stop to fill up his inner tancks. What is a commissioned work? What does a world premiere feel like? And what does living between two musical worlds, the USA and Germany, bring about? That’s what we talk about over a glass of tasty-savory berry juice. The cello is keeping us company. Jan Vogler gives an exclusive performance of: a bit of Sean Shepherd and the “Sarabande” from Bachs Cello Suite Nr.1.

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Omer Meir Wellber and Jan Vogler at the Dresden Music Festival (June 2023)

On Thursday and Friday, Omer Meir Wellber will be a guest in Dresden with the Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini. Thursday’s concert will feature a program of works by Verdi, Shostakovtian, Wagner and Tchaikovsky with cellist and the festival’s artistic director Jan Vogler. Jan Vogler will interpret Shostakovich’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 1. The evening’s program booklet with more information can be found here. On Friday evening, pianist Mikhail Pletnev will perform Tchaikovsky’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 with the orchestra and Omer Meir Wellber, and the program will also include works by Verdi, Wagner and Respighi. The program booklet is available here.

8 June Dresden, Kulturpalast

Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini
Omer Meir Wellber – conductor
Jan Vogler – violoncello

  • Giuseppe Verdi: Overture to the opera “Macbeth
  • Dmitri Shostakovich: Concerto for Violoncello and Orchestra No. 1 E flat major op. 107
  • Richard Wagner: Overture to the opera “Lohengrin
  • Peter Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6 in B minor op. 74 “Pathétique

 

9 June Dresden, Kulturpalast

Filarmonica Arturo Toscanini
Omer Meir Wellber – conductor
Mikhail Pletnev – piano

  • Giuseppe Verdi: Overture to the opera “I vespri siciliani
  • Peter Tchaikovsky: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra No. 1 in B flat minor op. 23
  • Richard Wagner: Overture to the opera “Tannhäuser
  • Ottorino Respighi: “Metamorphoseon” Modi XII. Tema e variazioni

 

Live on NDR Kultur – Kent Nagano and Jan Vogler with the Philharmonic State Orchestra (April 2023)

After the acclaimed world premiere at New York’s Carnegie Hall on 22 April, Kent Nagano, Jan Vogler and the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg will present the German premiere of Sean Shepherd’s new work for for cello, (children’s/youth) choirs and orchestra based on a cycle of poems by the poet Ulla Hahn as well as works by Brahms and Beethoven at the International Musikfest Hamburg at the Elbphilharmonie. This will be followed by another performance at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie on 30 April and at Dresden’s Kulturpalast on 5 May.

NDR Kultur will broadcast the concert live from the Elbphilharmonie on Friday, 28 April 2023 at 8pm CET.

The Dresden Music Festival launches an artistic and academic Wagner Project with the Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln (March 2023)

As part of a comprehensive artistic and academic project, the Dresden Music Festival will explore the original sound of Richard Wagner, starting in 2023. The project’s mission is to present an annual concert performance of one part of Richard Wagner’s opera tetralogy »Der Ring des Nibelungen« by the Dresden Festival Orchestra and Concerto Köln under the baton of Kent Nagano, using historical instruments and the linguistic style of the time of its creation. The performance of Richard Wagner’s »Das Rheingold« at Dresden’s Kulturpalast on June 14, 2023 marks the project’s official launch.
The project under the artistic leadership of Festival Intendant Jan Vogler and conductor Kent Nagano will bring together Wagner experts and performers from all over the world in Dresden.

»The Dresden Music Festival is proud to deliver new impulses from Dresden to the world with this visionary project. I am sure that this new ›Ring‹ from Dresden and the musicological research involved will have a lasting influence on the reception and interpretation of Wagner’s music,« says Jan Vogler, Intendant of the Dresden Music Festival.

»From the instruments to vocal style and the general treatment of words – much of what we experience today during typical Wagner performances differs from the customs at Wagner’s time. We look forward to delving into the fascinating musical world of the 19th century together with our audience, which also includes asking critical questions that are necessary when it comes to a person such as Wagner,« says Kent Nagano, Artistic Director of the Wagner Project and Conductor Laureate of Concerto Köln.

The »Rheingold« premiere on June 14 will be accompanied by a comprehensive Wagner program. Under the leadership of the project’s academic curator PD Dr. Kai Müller, musicians from both orchestras will offer a workshop concert on the evening before the premiere, illustrating academic aspects of historical performance practice with musical examples. On the day of the premiere, the Kulturpalast will host an exhibition with several stations on Wagner’s oeuvre, short lectures in the foyer and a Wagner Café, from 12 noon onwards.

Cast of »Das Rheingold« on June 14, 2023 in Dresden:
Derek Welton (Wotan)
Dominik Köninger (Donner)
Mauro Peter (Loge)
Tansel Akzeybek (Froh)
Katrin Wundsam (Fricka)
Nadja Mchantaf (Freia)
Gerhild Romberger (Erda)
Daniel Schmutzhard (Alberich)
Thomas Ebenstein (Mime)
Tijl Faveyts (Fasolt)
Tilmann Rönnebeck (Fafner)
Ania Vegry (Woglinde)
Ida Aldrian (Wellgunde)
Eva Vogel (Floßhilde)

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