Nadège Rochat & Rafael Aguirre Play Carnegie Hall



When I created RhineBuzz, the idea was to help those who spoke little or no German discover what is happening on the arts and culture scene in and around Düsseldorf. I had no inkling that RhineBuzz would become a melting pot of great talent and creativity.
The community comes up with gems and surprises for me again and again as we seem to attract the creme dé la creme in terms of the creative and gifted characters that form the international community of our area.

It was last summer when my Spanish friends Rafael Aguirre Miñarro and Luis Regidor told me a of a young musician they had met in Cologne. “You have to meet her Caroline - she’s so .... incredible!”
So now I have met Swiss cellist Nadège Rochat, and yes, she is quite something.
Just from the videos that I have seen so far she is a indeed a musical gem, meet her personally and she is self assured and absolutely enchanting.
I’ve yet to hear her play, but seeing her on film and catching the spark in my friends’ eyes tell me that the first concert of hers that I will experience will be quite, quite memorable and that, in so many more ways than one.
For Rafael Miñarro Aguirre, described as ‘The perfect guitarist’ by Akustik Guitarre Magazine and the winner of more awards for guitar than any other Spaniard, and award-winning Nadège Rochat are playing Carnegie Hall in New York City on March 14 2012.
I will be there in the audience, along with Luis Regidor, for what promises to be a wonderful evening of music and friends in the most exciting city in the world!
So, although this isn’t a piece about what’s actually happening in and around Düsseldorf, how could I not share what is being created here in our city and reaching the far corners of our globe?
I asked Rafa and Nadège about how they feel about playing such a legendary venue, this is what they told me:

Nadège: It's the third generation, in my family, that almost everybody plays music and the dream of each musician in the world is to play once in the Carnegie Hall, so I am very very happy to share the emotion of my first concert there with the few of them who will come to New-York to support me. 





Rafael: For me it means that I will try to collect my best feelings during the next days and then try to make everybody in NY happy, helped and surrounded by the amazing acoustics and atmoshere that the legendary hall has. It is quite a thing!








Luis, who won second place at the Shure Competition for Voice at the Montreaux Jazz Fesival last summer will be playing numerous sessions in New York this coming week and to his great delight he has been accepted to take part in a masterclass with Grammy winning Kurt Elling.

For a chance to see Luis in action in our own city, he will be playing at the Jazz Rally in May. Details to follow.
In the meantime I look forward to hitting the Big Apple with these extraordinary young people.


"We Love Music" the Tour

Dietmar Morand and I at the Kriwet Exhibition at the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf
©Manfred Schmidt, Düsseldorf
Eurovision might be over, but these tours can still be booked - 
please enquire to tours@rhinebuzz.com for details

 Four Fixed public dates, in German, with surprise guests and concert tickets to win:
Saturday at 3pm from the Tourist Info Altstadt:

 The tour will take place every first Saturday of the month
Next date July 7 2012

 This is how the tour began in Spring 2011:
The musical force of Düsseldorf is extraordinary, with protagonists such as Mendelssohn, Schumann, Kraftwerk and the Toten Hosen weaving its rich and influential history.
******************
Next week Dietmar Morand and I begin giving the first "We Love Music" - the ideal tour for the Eurovision Song Contest, when media eyes and Eurovision fans from all around the world will be focused on the city for this great musical event!
Düsseldorf Marketing and Tourism are offering 9 tours to the public in German and 9 in English from April 28 - May 14. All begin at 5pm and last 90 mins. They can be booked online here or at one of the DMT shops in town or at the main station.
I was commissioned by the DMT to write two new tours for the city, "Arts in Düsseldorf" and "We Love Music", so the last couple of months have been a frenzy of interviewing and getting to know so many people and institutions for these beguiling projects. 
The doors that have opened for me have been a real delight to enter and although combined with all the other stuff I have been asked to get involved with for Eurovision it's all been, and still is a huge amount of work, I'm really honoured to have been asked to take this on.
Added to this I've been putting together two ESC Shows for the BBC. One for national Radio Two, the Ken Bruce show and then also for BBC Radio Berkshire, The Andrew Peach Breakfast Show.
For the last few weeks I have already been accompanying the first of the 2,500 foreign journalists expected around the city for ESC, using much of the material from these two tours for the press work. The response has been very good, the press have left not with one mainstream article about the city as host to ESC but with enough material and ideas for several cultural pieces on the city. They discovered a hub of arts and music that they simply didn't know existed!
Talking new painting and new music with Emil Schult
A very special visit to the Krypta at the Robert Schumann School of Music which
 Emil Schult decorated, an absolute "insiders tip" in Düsseldorf
Tim and I crawled around 22 metres up high in the dome of the Tonhalle with sound engineer Andreas Kainz to understand how the Tonhalle actually works!
VIP Shuttle for Scottish journalist Lillian McDowall
To all those that invited me into their studios, homes and party basements :), thank you; for the phone numbers that have been passed onto me; the contacts that have generously been shared; for the time you have given me, thank you. And most of all for the trust and the smiles.

Thanks to Tim. You have taken on the challenge of working with me admirably 
and are doing a fantastic job!

Strobe lighting at the recent Creamcheese Revival Party. Creamcheese probably showed Germany's first strobe lightning in the 1960s

No doubt after Eurovision these tours will continue, we have mountains of material to share with you and delicious morsels of musical surprises for the tours. Other subjects are in the planning, and we do realise that we will have to offer them at a later time. I've already received numerous emails saying that the time is too early. But the RhineBuzz community have been asking me to begin tours again for a while now and so here we are, it's a great start!

 Tim and I have thoroughly enjoyed the research and the music for these tours and we are looking forward to the next few weeks, the run up to Eurovision and all the city events that will be going on enormously!


Come join the party!

Die Grosse Kunstausstellung NRW Düsseldorf 2012



Richard Deacon
©Bernd Ahrens Photography 

Take a look at the Grosse Kunstausstellung NRW Düsseldorf 2012 at Museum Kunstpalast until March 18.
This is a show of art to buy - eclectic, at times amusing and certainly inspiring, with  a focus in 2012 on photography.
The photographs of prize-winning Walter Vogel are quite wonderful.
Anne
©Michael H.Rohde


If you buy here you are contributing in keeping this great tradition alive and who knows which great artists of the future you may be supporting.

Silvia Liebig
Pimp my Head 

This year also sees a special section of sculpture students of the class of Professor Richard Deacon, Turner prize winner in 1987 and recipient of a CBE in 1999 for his considerable work in the arts world in Britain. He is currently teaching at the world-renowned Düsseldorf Art Academy.
Speaking with Richard Deacon
©Bernd Ahrens Photography 

 A rich catalogue has been produced to accompany this show and for a special deal of just €20 you receive entry for two and a catalogue.
Highly recommended!

Museum Kunstpalast
Ehrenhof 4-6
40479 Düsseldorf


Open until 9pm on Thursdays

A Musical Walk Through Time


RhineBuzz is pleased to present the first own event of 2012 on March 1 2012 at 7.30pm with Julia Coulmas, a bright, young soprano from Florida and former principle singer with the Tampa Bay Opera. We are now very fortunate to count her as a vibrant new member of the RhineBuzz community!
'A Musical Walk Through Time' will feature popular Broadway and opera highlights accompanied by Michael Carleton on piano.
We are also especially happy to be hosting this at the Weinzimmer on Burgplatz.
It never ceases to astound me the incredible talent of those that write to RhineBuzz. Julia contacted me recently and soon we had a her singing at a private event, and then again on the first 'We Love Music' tour of the year. I think it's true to say we were pretty astounded at the marvellous voice that came out of this very tiny woman, we even had a guest with a tear in his eye on the recent tour, so it is with all the more anticipation that we look forward to a lovely evening of wine, fine melodies and two most wonderful artists.
Do come and join us!
Tickets, €10, may be purchased by sending an email to: opera@rhinebuzz.com





Julia Coulmas and Micheal Carleton

"A Musical Walk Through Time"

March 1 2012 at 7.30pm

Weinzimmer

Burgplatz 12

40213 Düsseldorf

Schumann Festival 2012




"Get Romantic"' is the tempting motto for the Schumannfest 2012. It’s an invitation to get up-close-and-personal with the sensitivity of Robert Schumann, ‘the’ German romanticist, exclusively interpreted through outstanding names of today’s music scene. His desires and despairs, his passions and personalities will be recreated in ways that makes Robert Schumann more modern than ever! One glimpse into the programme and the wide spectrum of creatively inspired ‘labours of love’ awakes a curiosity to discover more. From the Emerson String Quartett’s “Transatlantic Festoverture” homage to the beginnings of the Lower Rhenisch Music Festivals, to “The New Romantics” with the electronic wizardry of Hauschka and the magic of My Brightest Diamond, right up to the music-comedy of “A Little Nightmare Music” with over six million views on YouTube, it’s obvious that the Schumannfest 2012 will captivate audiences of all sorts like never before! 


The Intendant of the Schumannfest, Michael Becker, enthusiastically invites listeners to experience the Schumann that appeals to all age groups, both 'newbies' and the well-versed to the Romantic era of Schumann. The next Schumannfest takes place from May 24  to the 4 June 2012, musically connecting with the Dusseldorf Jazz Rally at the end of May. "We Love Music" here in Dusseldorf, and May will be something to really look forward to! 
Book now, and 'Get Romantic'!
Tickets also bookable through RhineBuzz

There will be extra "We Love Music" tours on offer during the Festival including press and public tours in English. Please contact tours@rhinebuzz.com for details.

Tim D. Morand

Trailing Spouses Workshop 17 January 2012


Feedback from a very successful day on Tuesday:

 "[This is] the most comfortable [I've felt] since coming to Germany."


 "Was even better than I expected it to be. :))".

 "[My expectations] were more than met. I was very impressed with the useful information presented."

 More here

 Thanks Everyone :)

 I've already had enquiries for a follow-up, we'll certainly keep you informed!


Moving to a foreign place when your partner accepts a contract for a new and demanding job can, at times, be twice as hard on the you.
You may have been busy fixing up the new home, your partner has new challenges and new colleagues, possibly your children are at school making new friends and once you are all 'settled', do you find yourself saying "now what?"


It's not easy finding your way around a new place when you've left your friends and family behind, you don't speak the language and you find yourself at home alone. Just don't despair! Düsseldorf has so very much to offer and we are here to help you find it!


The International School on the Rhine in Neuss, (ISR), and RhineBuzz have come together to offer you a fun-filled day where you can meet folks in the same situation as yourselves and discover much that there is to enjoy and share in Düsseldorf.
Our workshop will be packed with guest speakers including the director of the Tonhalle and director of the forthcoming Schumann Fest, Michael Becker; Peter Inhoven, gourmet butcher extraordinaire who will explain all those weird cuts of meat; yoga with our wonderful instructor from USA, John Vilardo; Driving School Ludwig will let you know that you can learn to drive here too; we will have speakers on activities to do with children and information on where to shop when the crazy German closing times leave you stranded. There will even be a talk on communication in Germany and how it might differ from what you are possibly used to.
There will be so very much in this day that you can use in a most hands-on way and of course I'll be adding a few words about filling your social calendar!


Giveaways include a chance to win tickets and vouchers from Düsseldorf Marketing and Tourism, the German Opera on the Rhine, Museum Kunstpalast, Champu Stylists, the Schumann Fest and the Tonhalle.


So do come and join us on 17 January 2012 from 9 until 4.30pm at
E.ON
E.ON-Platz 1
40479
Düsseldorf
Free lunch is included!
Click here for registration, or simply send an email with your name and contact details to caroline@rhinebuzz.com
A donation of €5 to the Children's Hospice Regenbogenland is requested.
Payment please to:
ISR GmbH,
Sparkasse Neuss,
Acc No. 93366177
BSC 305 500 00
adding "Trailing Spouses Workshop" as a reference.
Questions? Call Isabel (on leave Dec 24-Jan 3) on 02131 40 388-15
or email caroline@rhinebuzz.com
This event is generously sponsored by E.ON


World Class The Düsseldorf School of Painting 1819 - 1918


©Bernd Ahrens Photography

Closes January 22!

Were you aware that 'Washington Crossing the Delaware', a vast painting by Emanuel Leutze that currently hangs in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, actually has its roots in the Düsseldorf School of Painting?
It is in fact believed that the river depicted in this icon to American history is not the Delaware but the river Rhine.

Under the patronage of Philip D. Murphy, the United States ambassador to Germany and Guido Westerwelle, the German minister for foreign affairs, the Museum Kunstpalast opened an extraordinary exhibition on September 24.
World Class The Düsseldorf School of Painting 1819 -1918 shows the rich and varied wealth of painting involved in the art's movement known as 'The Düsseldorf School of Painting' beginning in the late nineteenth century. At the time, the Düsseldorf School was amongst the leading European schools of painting.

Wilhelm von Shadow, director of the Academy from 1826, was responsible for bringing great students to Düsseldorf; such was the reputation of the training that was happening at the Art Academy that kings sent their best painters to Düsseldorf to learn more about their craft.

©Bernd Ahrens Photography


To begin the show there is a world map, pin-pointing where the painters who trained in Düsseldorf took their new trained talents all over the globe, from New Zealand to South America, up to Scandinavia and especially to the USA.
There are also fascinating portraits of some of the greatest painters of the era who spent time in Düsseldorf and also wonderful sketches showing how their working studios in the Academy once looked. 


©Bernd Ahrens Photography


Loans for this exhibition have been given by some of the most prestigious museums in the world including the Louvre in Paris, the State Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, the State Tretyakov Gallery in Moscow, the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm and the Terra Foundation for American Art in Chicago.


There are paintings which have returned to Düsseldorf for the first time in 200 years. At the opening, the curator Dr. Bettina Baumgärtel was clearly touched by the richness of this exhibition.


This is a beautiful show, rich, colourful and bombastic. One Düsseldorf can be truly proud of, with some 450 works of art on show.
It will open your eyes as to the great global influence of the Düsseldorf School of Painting from the dedicated artists of the Düsseldorf Art Academy and surrounding area.


For a peek into the Academy today take a look at this CNN video RhineBuzz gladly helped put together.


The museum is offering 2 public tours in English on: 
November 5 and December 17 both at 4pm.

Audio guide also available in English.

The museum is open from 11am until 6pm daily except Mondays and until 9pm on Thursdays.


World Class The Düsseldorf School of Painting 1819 - 1918
Museum Kunstpalast
Ehrenhof 4-5
40479 Düsseldorf
24 September 2011 to 22 January 2012
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