PROGRAM
A WORLD SYMPHONY
In 2020, we put all our energy into the biggest CD production in the history of our orchestra. Recorded in the most beautiful and best studios in Baden-Wuerttemberg and Europe, not only our heart and soul has gone into everything here, but also the best recording technology of a fantastic audio team around Markus Born & Dennis Kopacz.
For this production we were able to record such diverse and fascinating singers as Jay Alexander, Abeer Nehme, Yasemine Sannino, Oksana Voytovich, Eve Leticia, Jerusalem Ilfu, Mohamad Habbal, Serkan Ates & Kandara Diebate. The result is a concept album comparable to the great albums of the 70s by Pink Floyd, David Bowie and the Beatles.
It is a great honor for us that Universal Music MENA has released our album.
With this program, the “Orchestra of Cultures” presents both a retrospective of its first 10 years and an outlook on what to expect in the future. Sacred works like Adrian Werum’s remarkable new arrangement of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “Ave Verum” sit alongside cross-cultural symphonic pop songs like “Sonbahar” and “Für mein neues Vaterland.” Longtime collaborator Jay Alexander sets a new artistic tone with Robert Schumann’s “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai.” One of the most beautiful voices in contemporary Middle Eastern music, Abeer Nehme, is also among the musical discoveries heard in this collection. Similarly, Mohammad Habbal and the Philharmonia Chor Stuttgart with their fusion of the Arabic hymn “Mawtini” and Ludvig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy.” The album was recorded in the Kleine Audio- welt Studios in Heidelberg and in the Hans-Rosbaud Studio of the SWR in Baden-Baden. The mastering was done by Christoph Stickel in Vienna. The artistic process combined with state of the art recording techniques has allowed us to achieve a standard far beyond what we could have ever imagined. We may be “Made in Germany”, but we have made a real “World Symphony”: for you, our worldwide audience.
Tenor Jay Alexander, who has lent his voice to the orchestra for many years, sets new artistic accents with Robert Schumann’s “Im wunderschönen Monat Mai.”
But also Abeer Nehme, one of the most beautiful voices of the contemporary Orient, is part of this world tour, as well as Mohammad Habbal and the Philharmonia Chor Stuttgart with their fusion of the Arabic hymn “Mouteni” and Ludwig van Beethoven’s “Ode to Joy”. “Recorded at the Kleine Audiowelt in Heidelberg and at the Hans Rosbaud Studios of the SWR in Baden-Baden, mastered by Christoph Stickel in Vienna, we were united on this CD – recording technology and art as we always imagined,” says Adrian Werum.
RELEASE CONCERT 22.9.2022 LIEDERHALLE STUTTGART
The orchestra
THE SONG
The German art song is a special art form and has not changed further in the 21st century. The intimate character of the singer and the piano has remained untouched, as have their roots in German Romanticism. In “Das Lied 2.0.” we break this song tradition and open it to new orchestral timbres, ethnic instruments and singers from other cultures, contrasting the lyrics with similar texts from other cultures and mixing the colors of excellent classical singers with singers from other cultures. Famous songs from the cycles of Schubert, Schumann, Wolf, Wagner, Strauss and Werum are not only orchestrated, but also reshaped compositionally. An exciting project that stands in the rich tradition of German Romanticism and at the same time looks to the future and opens up new artistic paths.
RELEASE CONCERT 6.10.2023 LIEDERHALLE STUTTGART
Cemil Qocqiri
ROOTS - NO ROOTS
Every kind of music has its roots, but is always transgressive and universally understandable. Adventurous fans of pop and world music will get their money’s worth at the joint concert of the Orchestra of Cultures and the Musikwerk Pop Choir.
Adrian Werum and Arnd Pohlmann show with their ensembles that it is always possible to put down new roots in all freedom.
RELEASE CONCERT 27.4.2024 THEATERHAUS STUTTGART
Oksana Voytovich
SPIRIT OF ONE
An interfaith crossover project: spiritual texts and works form the basis for this new composition by Adrian Werum. Prayers and wisdom from Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam combine beautifully with chorales by Bach, melodies by Mozart, and improvised pieces from non-European musical cultures.
Through the members of the Orchestra of Cultures, a wide variety of religions come together. In the concept for “Spirit of One” there was also the conviction that it was time for a new spiritual movement, not based on traditions and prohibitions as in conventional religions, but wanting to be an inspiration for spiritual experiences for all people, regardless of their religious or anti-religious tradition. An attempt is made to make the hypnotic effect of the trance, as experienced by the whirling dervishes, accessible to European ears. Hypnotizing beats enter into an exciting symbiosis with the thematic material from Mozart’s Piano Concerto in D minor. from duduk to didgeridoo in a breathtaking tempo tour de force.
RELEASE CONCERT TBA