Name: Female Voices United
Start: 2025-03-23T19:00:00
Location: Philharmonie Mercatorhalle

Duisburg is set to be the stage of a vibrant showcase of musical and cultural events, featuring world-class operas such as Verdi's 'La Traviata' and Mozart's 'Don Giovanni,' alongside innovative projects like 'Female Voices United' and 'A-string to pluck.' From the timeless narratives of opera to the dynamic debates of musical history, the upcoming events offer something for everyone. Join us as we delve into the details of these fascinating performances and the artists bringing them to life.

A Harmonious Confluence: Opera, Culture, and Musical Innovation in Duisburg

Merve Akyıldız

Samin Ghorbani

Sakina Teyna

Golnar Shahyar

Valentina Bellanova

Amir Wahba

Mahan Mirarab

Duisburger Philharmoniker

Music touches the soul, and regardless of cognitive or physical limitations, enjoying music together is almost always possible. In dementia-related changes, music can play a key role, providing access where language no longer can. It can evoke memories and appeal to everyone's emotions equally. "Heart Music" offers a relaxing hour for those affected, their relatives, caregivers, and the whole family. The concerts take place in the barrier-free foyer of the Philharmonie Mercatorhalle and are particularly suitable for music lovers who need assistance or simply want to enjoy a concert in the afternoon.

Heart music

Philharmonic Mercatorhalle, foyer

In 2024, the Trio con Brio Copenhagen celebrated its 25th stage anniversary: ​​a quarter-century of ensemble history, during which the three have delighted audiences with their characteristic blend of harmonious interplay and instrumental perfection. They have already demonstrated their talent in Duisburg, too, in the 2022/2023 season with works by Ludwig van Beethoven and Franz Schubert, among others. This time, the program features Lili Boulanger, one of the most gifted composers of her time: she was the first woman ever to win the famous Rome Prize before her tragically early death from tuberculosis at the age of 24. However, she was still able to complete a pair of unlikely works for trio: one, "D'un matin de printemps," full of enchanting spring colors and hope, the other, "D'un soir triste," full of despair and melancholy. The only piano trio by Maurice Ravel follows in a cheerful and relaxed manner, in which the composer plays with sophisticated sound mixtures and intricate rhythms, while Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy's Piano Trio No. 2 strikes a particularly passionate tone and is, as the composer himself remarked, "a bit nauseating to play."

Trio con Brio Copenhagen

CityPalais

"Peace doesn't come by itself," Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lyniv said in an interview: "Without active commitment, it won't exist." And she herself sets a good example, with the resources available to her as a musician. In 2023, for example, she conducted a solidarity concert for Ukraine in Duisburg with the Youth Symphony Orchestra of Ukraine, which she founded. Now she returns with a piece that she also initiated. "Oksana Lyniv's idea to compose a work based on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's 'The Little Prince' immediately inspired me," says composer Eduard Resatsch. He sees the abstract figure of the prince as a beacon of hope in a modern world: "For me, this fairy tale embodies the comprehensive idea of ​​universal humanism; it is a metaphor for world peace – especially in today's world, when we must say goodbye to many illusions." Following the world premiere in Paris on February 25, 2026, Oksana Lyniv will conduct the German premiere of this hopeful work in Duisburg. Following this, the young Ukrainian pianist Illia Ovcharenko will play—at the conductor's special request—the "Piano Concerto for the Left Hand," which Ravel composed for Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in the First World War. The concert will then conclude with Camille Saint-Saëns's magnificent "Organ Symphony."

Peace music

The toccata concert "Trumpet & Organ" was originally scheduled to take place last year, but then the devastating floods struck Valencia, Pacho Flores' adopted hometown. Together with star conductor Gustavo Dudamel, the trumpeter and Artist in Residence for the 2024/2025 season organized a benefit concert for the victims of the natural disaster – which took place on the day of the planned toccata. However, the two musicians did not want to deprive the Duisburg audience of the spectacular sound experience, when radiant trumpet tones combine with the majestic sound of the Eule organ – and will present their personally curated program in the 2025/2026 season. Pacho Flores and Carlos Paterson met in Valencia, have already been in the recording studio together, and have brought along not only their own works but also arrangements of other composers. For example, Johann Sebastian Bach's popular cantata "Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme" (Awake, the Voice Calls Us), but also the "Méditation sur Salve Regina" from the "Scènes Mystiques d'une Paraphrase Grégorienne," which Carlos Paterson composed in 2021. In the same year, Pacho Flores also composed "Musas y Resuell," which he dedicated to the Argentine tango king Astor Piazzolla.

Trumpet & Organ

For the fourth time, the Duisburg Philharmonic and its guests, together with Ludger Engels, are developing three concert performances for the special exhibitions at the Küppersmühle Museum. In the nine editions of the series, which has become a cult classic and whose three performances are now each being performed twice due to high demand, the Philharmonic, with more than 40 guests from music, theater, and dance, have created new levels of experience from the themes and content of the exhibited works. In the next three concert performances, sound interventions will provide audible insights into the works of the Küppersmühle's unique Ströher Collection, as well as the backgrounds of the respective artists and their inspirations.

Concerts at the Küppersmühle Museum

Museum Küppersmühle

Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov was his composition teacher; in addition to a symphony and a piano concerto, he himself wrote a variety of songs, chamber music, and piano works. Yet today, hardly anyone knows Georgi Catoire. To mark the 100th anniversary of his death on May 21, the program opens with his melancholic Piano Quintet in G minor, in which, despite all its originality, echoes of Johannes Brahms can also be heard. Brahms himself is also represented, with his symphonic-like Quintet in F minor. Interspersed with this piece is one of George Onslow's 34 string quintets: Harmonic richness and cantabile melodies characterize the work, in which the composer also achieves a special richness of sound through the instrumentation of cello and double bass.

Quintet discovery

Lehmbruck Museum

The large, old trees in the forest hide a fascinating secret. Musical instruments are built from the trunks and branches of maple, spruce, and pine—as well as from the wood of trees from distant lands. An entire musical forest will be heard during the concert. The Duisburg Philharmonic will talk about their instrument trees and discuss the importance of protecting them so that the forest can be preserved as a habitat for animals and plants. After the concert, an instrument maker will present her work, and guests of all ages will have the opportunity to try out the instruments for themselves.

Astrein – Instruments and their trees

Around 250 years separate the Baroque composer Johann Sebastian Bach from the Hungarian composer György Ligeti, one of the most distinguished representatives of New Music in the 20th century. Yet they have something in common: the radical concentration of compositional means with which they advanced into new realms of expression. It is therefore a fascinating dialogue when Bach's famous "Goldberg Variations," a crown jewel of keyboard literature to this day, encounters György Ligeti's String Quartet No. 1. While Bach uses a simply enchanting melody, which he develops into 30 variations, Ligeti takes a short four-note motif, which he then allows to undergo a series of metamorphoses.

Radical worlds of expression

Theater Duisburg

As a Community Music Artist with the Duisburg Philharmonic, Koray Berat Sari brings together the musical traditions of various cultures in specially developed concert formats. This is also the case in his new project "Newroz and the Cultures of the World": Spring ignites a vibrant fire of hope and new beginnings - a fire that burns across continents in the most diverse traditions. While many cultures celebrate the awakening of nature and resurrection as symbols of renewal, the Indo-Iranian New Year festival Newroz (Persian: نوروز ) marks a special high point in the spring calendar. These holidays are more than just occasions to celebrate: they bring together people and rituals from all over the world in a unique celebration of the joy of life. This global diversity of spring traditions is the focus of the concert. To this end, Koray Berat Sari has compiled a program that combines traditional instruments such as the Anatolian bağlama, the Caucasian duduk, and Iranian drums with the sounds of classical orchestral instruments, in which music transcends boundaries and connects cultures. The collaboration of professional musicians and a selection of participants in the "Marxloh Music Project" creates musical bridges between Easter, Newroz, and other spring festivals, bringing the magic of new beginnings to life.

Spring fire

In the 2024/2025 season, Thomas Enhco already explored "Transatlantic Sound Worlds" with the Duisburg Philharmonic. And in his return, the artist proves himself to be an accomplished wanderer between musical worlds, equally at home in jazz and the classical repertoire. Both influences flow into his new program, "Mozart Paradox." "Mozart has accompanied me since childhood," recalls Thomas Enhco. "As a jazz musician, however, I had never before resorted to his work to improvise, as I often did with Bach, Brahms, or Schumann." And the versatile musician is now changing that with a project entirely dedicated to the work of the Salzburg prodigy. For this project, he has compiled a personal selection of popular works—including the "Lacrimosa" from the famous Requiem, the overture to the opera "Don Giovanni," and the eerily beautiful clarinet concerto—on which he can improvise with complete freedom. He wants to "consider the essence of Mozart's music through the prism of jazz" and explore the paradoxes in Mozart's emotional world: "tragedy and humor, exuberant joy and profound sadness, childlike mischief and reflections on death."

Mozart Paradox

With the 6th Symphony, Gustav Mahler composed perhaps his darkest work. Right from the beginning, the music pounding away in a dark, threatening march rhythm. Fortunately, in the turbulent atmosphere of his "Tragic" Symphony, the composer grants us at least brief moments of calm: small, idyllic islands to catch our breath. In the first movement, it is the herd bells of the cows on the alpine pastures. For Mahler, they represent the last sounds he heard on his numerous walks in the mountains – before "heavenly" peace surrounded him on the summit. In the sublimely beautiful string lyric of the slow movement, we then hear a painfully beautiful declaration of love to his wife Alma. But this brief moment of happiness is short-lived; catastrophe strikes relentlessly in the finale. The three resounding hammer blows have repeatedly been associated with the composer's personal blows: the end of his career as director of the Vienna Court Opera, the diagnosis of a serious heart condition, and the death of his daughter. And so this tragic symphony ends in utter hopelessness. After exploring transatlantic soundscapes twice last season, Alondra de la Parra delves into the dark depths of Mahler's symphonic cosmos this time.

Tragic

A moderated, interactive live concert for young people, designed to fascinate the eyes, ears, and senses alike. Since when has music existed? When did the first orchestras emerge? What does the Eurovision Song Contest actually have to do with classical music? Why is George Frideric Handel the true superstar of the Champions League—and why does the slow movement from Joseph Haydn's "Emperor Quartet" sound so familiar? A string quartet from the Duisburg Philharmonic will take young people on an exciting journey through music history, designed to whet their appetite for classical music. The enthusiasm is contagious, and potential risks and side effects are (jokingly!) pointed out in advance.

phil4teens

Stadt Duisburg

The voices of six singers, united in a groundbreaking music project: All of them come from different conflict regions where women's musical expression encounters considerable obstacles. "Female Voices United" offers these special women a stage to raise their voices together. Curated by the Iranian ethnomusicologist Yalda Yazdani, different musical styles - from Iranian radif to Arabic, Turkish and Kurdish maqamen, European classical music and jazz - come together to create a sound space that demonstrates the power of music to promote peace, empowerment and intercultural dialogue. "Female Voices United" is not just a music project, but also a catalyst for social change and solidarity that appeals to audiences all over the world. But also very specifically in Duisburg: Community musician Koray B. Sari creates a bridge between the international ensemble and the Kurdish, Turkish and Iranian communities in Duisburg. Together they overcome boundaries, promote mutual understanding and send a powerful message of peace.

Female Voices United

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