“How to find the new us in the old?” (Seda Keskinkılıç, libretto for “Amphiphilia”)

In the search for answers, we make a start in the opening concert of our festival “VOM ANFANGEN” with the utopia of a trans-traditional symphony orchestra. In Mahler's 4th Symphony, the Konzerthausorchester and Jonathan Nott leave the “worldly turmoil” behind and open up a paradisiacal space. They then come together with the Trickster Orchestra, The Present and members of other independent ensembles for “Amphiphile” in “Himmel voller Geigen”. Just as amphiphilic substances dissolve in water and fat, the boundaries between traditions and musical languages become blurred: string, woodwind and brass instruments, as well as kanun, koto, sheng and nay, find a new common musical language in composed and improvised ways. With her libretto developed from conversations and encounters, Seda Keskinkılıç poses the question: What stories become audible when we allow the diverse voices of a “new us+” to resound side by side, both powerfully and vulnerably?