Sarah Maria Sun releases outstanding new CD KILLER INSTINCTS

The soprano breaks new ground and crosses all genre boundaries on her new album KILLER INSTINCTS, which was recorded at the Bayerischer Rundfunk München 2019 and will be released on Mode Records New York on 1st March 2020. Following Sarah Maria Sun the result is “a politically incorrect perpetrators’ study. And it is satirizing the new generation of fascist politicians, who swagger about clear enemy images and simple solutions and became a horrible new fashion. For this purpose, I assembled cynical, black-humorous monologues. The narrators of these monologues are stupid, selfish, spineless, lazy, greedy, corrupt, cold blooded, clever, charismatic, shrewd and charming narcissists, who twist us – just like in real life – around their little fingers.” KILLER INSTINCTS is a collection of stylistically different songs, from classics, contemporary music, musicals, pop and rock, including songs such as Tom Waits’ Just the right bullets, John Kander’s When you’re good to Mama, Stefan Wolpe’s Hitler, Alan Price’s Justice, Leonard Bernstein’s There’s a law about men. The singer is harmoniously accompanied by Jan Philip Schulze (piano, electric organ), Hubert Steiner (guitar, banjo, electric bass) and Bernd Oezsevim (drums). When her first solo CD Modern Lied was released on Mode Records in 2017, the Süddeutsche Zeitung lauded: Sun is a phenomenon of musical intelligence, agility and joyful leaps to the high notes, the elegance in complex speech and sound structures.

(published on 4 February 2020)

Holger Falk premières new opera by Manfred Trojahn in Bonn

We are looking forward to the première of the monodrama Ein Brief by composer Manfred Trojahn, which will be performed on 8th February 2020 with baritone Holger Falk in the main role at the Theater Bonn. This world première will be combined with Ludwig von Beethoven’s oratorio Christus am Ölberge to create a scenic evening, directed by choreographer Reinhild Hoffmann. The Beethoven Orchester Bonn will be conducted by general music director Dirk Kaftan. Ein Brief functions as a kind of prologue to Beethoven’s work and is based on the original letter from Lord Chandos to Francis Bacon by Hofmannsthal, in which a young poet writes to his mentor and speaks of his doubts as to whether he is still able to perform the accomplishments which are expected of him after his early publications. After his success as Enrico in Trojahn’s opera of the same name at the Oper Frankfurt, Holger Falk will now perform this première as an accomplished character actor and vocal chameleon. Other performance dates in Bonn include: 14th February 2020, 12th/28th March 2020, 5th/11th April 2020 as well as at the Theater an der Wien: 29th February 2020.

(published on 21 January 2020)