The Dresdner Sinfoniker travelled to East Jerusalem and the West Bank in 2013 to perform the work “Symphony for Palestine”, together with Palestinian and Azerbaijani soloists, with music by the world-renowned Iranian composer Kayhan Kalhor. Symphony for Palestine is dedicated to two Palestinians: Juliano Mer-Khamis, the murdered director of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin, and the eleven-year-old Ahmed Khatib, who was shot by an Israeli soldier in 2005 because he thought the boy’s water pistol was a real weapon. His story resonated throughout the world, as his parents donated Ahmed’s organs to five Israeli children.

Inspired by these tragic events, the Iranian composer Kayhan Kalhor combined traditional Persian melodies and elements of Arab folk music with the sound of a European string orchestra and oriental instruments. The Dresdner Sinfoniker see themselves as mediators between different traditions and cultures. Despite countless obstacles, they traveled to the West Bank and sent an unmistakable signal for the power of music to unite people.

Special Thanks: Ahmad Aqil, Omar Barghouti, Ben Bernhard, Boomtown Media, Dan Coleman, Sharaf DarZaid, Salwa Duaibis, Hans-Peter Eckardt, Edward Said National Conservatory of Music, Hussein Mousa Faqih, Murat Gök & Pilot Gallery Istanbul, Olivia Güthling, Mohammad Halayka, Girina Holland, Franziska Jahn, Anne Jung, Mamoun Kanaan, Muna Khleifi, Stefan Kobsa, Raed Al Kobari, Sonja Leinkauf, Axel Lische, Dr. Bernhard Freiherr von Löffelholz, Firas Mahajneh, Torsten Maß, Miri & Yossi, Martin Morgenstern, Vazeh Mustafa, Lea Muth, Nassar Nassar, Ilona Nawa, Sanne Neumuth, Mirko Nowak, Bisher Qassis, Dagmar Quentin, Ossama Quteineh, Stefan Rindt, Frank Bongo Rotzsch, Michael Schwarz, Yuval Shaked, Marc Sinan, Isabel Soffer, Friederike Tappe-Hornbostel and Marcus Vetter.

Symphony for Palestine was funded by the Kulturstiftung des Bundes, the state capital Dresden – Amt für Kultur und Denkmalschutz, the Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen as well as the Kulturstiftung Dresden of Dresdner Bank and was a co-production of Dresdner Sinfoniker and Ben Deiß.

Photos: Klaus Gigga, Martin Morgenstern, Sabine Grüner, Annekathrin Rammelt, Markus Rindt. Cover photo courtesy of Murat Gök / PILOT Gallery, Istanbul

On August 6, 2015, the world marked 70 years since the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. Code-named “Little Boy”, the bomb detonated at an altitude of 580 metres. Packed with the force of 15,000 tonnes of dynamite, the wave of heat and pressure it triggered transformed the city into a hell on earth. 100,000 people were wiped out instantly, while 350,000 were plagued by the after-effects for the rest of their lives. Among the survivors, was the Japanese artist, Keiji Nakazawa, who recorded his experience in the classic “Barefoot Gen” manga comic. This epic autobiographical work runs to 2,500 pages, and its drawings and stories depict the aftermath of the bomb in a hauntingly evocative manner.

As part of the 2015 Palais Sommer Festival in Dresden, the east German city on the banks of the river Elbe hosted an open-air event featuring the projection of the comic onto a giant screen to the sound of live improvisations by musicians from the Dresdner Sinfoniker. Under the patronage of the Japanese Embassy, the performance commemorated the anniversary of the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Amsterdam clarinetist and video artist Oğuz Büyükberber used the original material of the graphic novel “Barefoot Gen” to create a powerful visual narrative that was projected onto the façade of the Japanese Palais.

The audience was able to experience the events of that time through the eyes and ears of a six-year-old boy named Gen. The city’s residents go about the activities of daily life on that fateful morning of August 6, 1945, the day on which a B-29 bomber traversed the clear blue sky above Hiroshima. The story allows the audience to recreate the moment “Little Boy” descended from the sky and imagine its chilling effects.

In Cooperation with HELLERAU – Europäisches Zentrum der Künste Dresden, the Embassy of Japan, Carlsen Verlag, Greve Studio Berlin, Japan Uni Agency, Manuel Gogos – Agentur für Geistige Gastarbeit, Palais Sommer and Studt-Akustik. Funded by Kulturstiftung des Freistaates Sachsen, Landeshauptstadt Dresden – Amt für Kultur und Denkmalschutz, Kulturstiftung Dresden der Dresdner Bank, Neumann & Müller and Heckschen & van de Loo Notare.

Sergei Eisenstein’s re-enactment of the October Revolution, actually filmed 10 years later, partly with the historical protagonists in original locations, is an exceptional example of film making and an ironic commentary on themes of partisanship and power, We show a version restored in 2012 by the Filmmuseum in Munich with new music composed just for this evening. Four musicians of the Dresdner Sinfoniker play live and in front of the screen in Schauburg. A world premiere!

Rolf Zielke
Musical direction and keyboards
Heiko Jung
Drums and percussion
Sascha Friedl
Flute and sub-contrabass flute
Stephan Brown
E-Cello

Silent film by Sergei Eisenstein and Grigori Alexandrov, USSR 1928

A cooperation of Staatsschauspiel Dresden with Filmtheater Schauburg and Dresdner Sinfoniker.