Kurt Weill F E S T I V A L

Kurt Weill became an American from the day he landed in Manhattan in 1935. He told Time Magazine: “Americans seem to be ashamed to appreciate things here, I’m not.” Please join us for a full season of events exploring the timeliness of Kurt Weill’s story. How did he transform himself into an American? A Broadway composer? What, precisely, did America mean to him? Performances, talks, and master classes examine his work in the context of his and our time.

Kurt Weill’s life was short but productive. The half-century in which he lived was turbulent: 1900–1950. He was born in Dessau, Germany to a father who made his living as a cantor in the local Jewish synagogue. Weill’s musical gifts were immediately recognized, and as a young man he studied music at Berlin’s Hochschule fur Musik under Englebert Humperdinck and Ferruccio Bursoni.

Nazi Germany turned Weill into a refugee and then an immigrant. While still in Germany, Weill wrote music in direct opposition to the rise of Hitler and was so hurt by his forced immigration to the United States that he fully renounced being a German. His music reflected as much. While in Germany he focused largely on art song and kept with German classical traditions; once in America, he scrupulously studied American popular song, and used his classical training to create a genre all its own.

Weill’s music does not fit neatly into any one niche. Cabaret, string quartet, German lied, Broadway: there was no style of composition he had not mastered. It was once claimed by some that the German Weill and the American Weill were two different composers, the former a true musician of the highest form, the latter a sell-out and slave to fame and fortune. Yet Weill himself rejected that notion, famously stating: “I have never acknowledged the difference between serious music and light music. There is only good music and bad music.”

Composed in response to the turbulent political times in which he lived, Kurt Weill’s stage works find new resonance today as many of those same issues persist. His operas and musical theater works address subjects – such as the immigrant experience (Street Scene), interracial conflict (Lost in the Stars), greed, corruption, exploitation of the poor (The Threepenny Opera, Seven Deadly Sins, Happy End) – that continue to resonate in today’s headlines. He championed the marginalized and oppressed in his works throughout his career, constantly seeking new ways to give voice to the disenfranchised as he explored new musical forms and crossed stylistic boundaries. Whether antidote or allegory, Weill’s works offer a response to a changing (or unchanging) world.

The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences’ Arts Collaboratory are pleased to present this unique exploration of Weill and his times. We invite you to join us often throughout the season to experience his work firsthand!

A Stor y of Immigration

786 Delaware AvenueBuffalo, NY 14209

KURT

WEI

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An exemplary immigrant, Kurt Weill was the leading German opera composer of his

generation before fleeing Hitler — and becoming a Broadway star.

His saga has never been more timely or inspirational.

A S

tory

of

Imm

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KURTWEILLF E S T I V A L

Presented by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences’ Arts Collaboratory

A Stor y of Immigration

“ Wherever I found decency and humanity in the world, it reminded me of America.”

— Kurt Weill (1947)

With special thanks to The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music for support of this project.

Oct 11, 2018 to May 5, 2019

1900Born Kurt Julian

Weill, Dessau Germany to parents of

Jewish descent. Father was a

cantor

First musical theater

production Die Zaubernacht premiers in

Berlin

1922

Weill finishes his music

schooling with Busoni

1923

Weill Marries Lotte Lenya, for the first time

1926

1927Bertolt Brecht and Weill meet

and begin collaborating

1912Starts piano

lessons and his first attempts at

writing music

1909Attends Herzogliche

Friedrichs-Oberrealschule

secondary school; his music teacher

is August Thiele and his German teacher

is Dr. Max Preitz

1906Starts

elementary school

1928The Three-

Penny Opera premieres in Berlin

1930The Great

Depression begins –

worldwide, German economy is greatly affected

1932Die Burgschaft premieres to protestors

from the Nazi Party – the work

represents artistic defiance

of the Nazi regime

1933Weill and

Lenya divorce;Flee Nazi Germany in March to Paris

1934Hitler solidifies

dictatorship in Germany. Weill

completes his Symphony No. 2, last purely orchestrated work. Conducted in

Amsterdam and New York by Bruno Walter

1935Weill and Lenya

move to New York City

1937Weill and Lenya re-marry in Westchester County,

New York;Weill goes to Hollywood;

eventually produces score for film You and Me

1940Collaborates with Ira

Gershwin and Moss Hart on Lady in the Dark

1947

Street Scene premiers in New York City. Langston Hughes provides libretto

Begins collaboration with

Alan Jay Lerner on Love Life

1950Dies from

heart attack, New York City

in Lenya’s arms

19 5019 00 19 05 19 10 19 15 19 20 19 25 19 30 19 35 19 40 19 45

Other Events presented in collaboration with the BPO Weill celebration

Wed Oct 10, 4pm Vocal Master Class Lisa Vroman, soprano William Sharp, baritoneUB Baird Recital HallMon Nov 19Free Student CabaretUB Department of Theatre and Dance MusicalFareWed Jan 16Weill Lecture: Joe Horowitz Location TBDFri Mar 8 SymposiumHumanities to the RescueAn Evening with Molly CrabappleUB Humanities InstituteMon Apr 8 One-Day SymposiumSounds: Avant Garde, Modernism and Fascism Dr. Kim Kowalke, President Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, featured speakerUB Humanities Institute

Thu Oct 11, 7:30pm UB Center for the Arts Mainstage Theater (Table Seating on Stage)

“ Change the World, It Needs It!”

A Weill/ Blitzstein/ Brecht CabaretLisa Vroman, soprano, and William Sharp, baritone, with pianist Shane SchagJoin these star performers on stage for an intimate and provocatively timely multi-media evening posing the question “What is Art for?” “Can it change the world?” Created by Kim Kowalke and Joe Horowitz; visual track by Peter BogdanoffTickets (UB): $25 general admission; $15 students

Thu Jan 17, 7pm Kleinhans Music Hall

Kurt Weill On BroadwayBuffalo Philharmonic OrchestraAdam Turner, conductor Lisa Vroman, soprano Hudson Shad, vocal quartet visuals by Peter BogdanoffThis multi-media program explores Weill’s dramatic saga of immigration – from Hitler’s Germany to Broadway, where his smash hits were Lady in the Dark and One Touch of Venus. Part One begins with Mack the Knife (condemned by the Nazis) and his Paris sensation The Seven Deadly Sins. Part Two is a sparkling and witty Broadway medley including September Song, and Weill himself singing That’s Him.Tickets (BPO): $49 reserved; $25 general admission; $12 students

Thu Mar 28, 7:30pmBaird Recital Hall

Degenerate Music: Weill, Eisler and SchoenbergWeill, Cello Sonata and Seven Pieces from The Threepenny Opera (arr. Frankel); Eisler, Duo Op. 7 and 14 Ways of Describing Rain, Op. 70; and Cabaret songs of Weill and Schoenberg with Tiffany Du Mouchelle, soprano, Jonathan Golove, cello, Eric Huebner piano and special guest Kathrein Allenberg, violin.Tickets (UB): $17-$22; seniors/students $12-$17

Thu May 2, 7:30pm Fri May 3, 7:30pm Sat May 4, 2pm & 7:30pm Sun May 5, 2pm Drama Theatre, UB Center for the Arts

THE THREEPENNY OPERABook and Lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, Music by Kurt Weill, English Adaptation by Simon Stephens, Produced by the UB Department of Theatre and Dance A milestone of 20th century music theatre, THE THREEPENNY OPERA reaches its 90th anniversary in 2018. This gripping, macabre masterpiece, a criticism of capitalism and middle-class morality set in a world of corrupt money and unpunished evil, is one of the most- produced works of music theatre worldwide. Weill’s celebrated score parodies operatic conventions and embraces the musical styles of jazz, period dance music, and cabaret. The work’s opening number, “The Ballad of Mack the Knife,” became one of the most popular songs of the 20th century. This newly conceived and designed full production with orchestra will be directed and music directed by Nathan R. Matthews.Tickets (UB): $20 general public $10 student/senior admission

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o: M

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T i c k e t sBPO Box Office: (716) 885 5000

www.bpo.orgUB CFA Box Office: (716) 645 2787

www.ubcfa.org/ticketsFor Updates:

bpo.org/tickets-events/weill

1918Weill

moves to Berlin in April

Tue Oct 30, 7:30pmKleinhans Music Hall (Stage Seating)

Weill and Blitzstein: String Quartets A quartet of talented BPO musicians take on two seminal early pre-war works, Kurt Weill’s String Quartet No. 1, Op. 8 and Marc Blitzstein’s “Italian” String Quartet.Andrea Cone and Amy Licata, violin Janz Castelo, viola Eva Herer, celloTickets (BPO): $25 general admission; $10 students

Feb 2-May 12

Photographic Recall: Italian Modernist and Fascist Architecture in Contemporary German PhotographyJust as Weill and Brecht set out to redefine “opera”, the photographers of this exhibition explore critical visual languages to question the assumptions about the cultural and political ideologies of the 1920s through 1940s. Just like Weill and Brecht’s works, these images “dramatize, they “perform” through compositional and formal choices the claims of an authoritarian regime and their repercussions today. The resulting photographic works are examples of art as a critical medium.UB Anderson Gallery Free

KURTWEILLF E S T I V A L

Kurt Weill Timeline

1921Begins

composition studies with

Busoni; Symphony No. 1

in one movement for

orchestra

1915-17Studies piano and theory

with Albert Bing; his wife Edith is the sister

of the Expressionist playwright Carl Sternheim; the Bings later

become “second parents” to Kurt Weill

1913His earliest prescored

composition is written;

Mi Addir. Jewish Wedding Song

Lisa Vroman William Sharp Shane Schag Adam Turner Hudson Shad

A Stor y of Immigrat ion

Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the “Music Unwound” orchestral consortium.