Award-winning Ran Jiais the young Chinese musician described as a 'piano poet with dramatic skill in music-making'. Quite simply she is one of the brightest stars shining in the impressive world of the young Chinese pianists right now! RhineBuzz is pleased to offer you all a very special 2 for 1 ticket offer for this concert. Tickets, just €18 for two, will be available at the ticket desk on the Rhine side of the Tonhalle on Sunday evening if you mention "RhineBuzz' when purchasing. This is the 'back stage' entrance to the Tonhalle.
Ran Jia will play: Johann Sebastian Bach Toccata c-Moll BWV 911 Maurice Ravel Miroirs Franz Schubert Sonate D 845 in a minor
Please do not hesitate to contact Meike Knoche for further details: meike.knoche@duesseldorf.de
Approximation Festival opens this evening with a concert in the Tonhalle by the legendarySteve Reich, recently described in the New York Times as 'the greatest living composer'. A pioneer of minimal compositions, his concert tonight will certainly be quite special, the atmosphere of the Tonhalle perfect for this kind of sound. This is such an extraordinary festival of new, ground-breaking music - musically speaking, it certainly was one of my personal highlights of last year when I witnessed, open-mouthed, Aki Takase playing piano, quite simply like nothing I had ever been aware of before.
Saturday sees another interesting concert in the museum K20 when Tolouse Low Traxplays in another very special space. Go and experience something you might know very little about, this celebration of new sounds, is at home in Düsseldorf, the very starting point of new electronic music and Kraftwerk from all those years ago. Several concerts are taking place in the edgiest club in town, Salon des Amateurs.
What a wonderful start to the beginning of the altstadtherbst! Having treated to us to a performance that threw the audience into a feast of colour, beautiful images, hypnotic beats and sometimes playful expressive movements, the ensemble Eun-Me Ahn thrilled the audience in the purpose-built festival marquee on Burgplatz last night. Happily rewarded with rapturous clapping, whistles and stamping feet exclaiming pure appreciation and joy, as the company took their final bows, a real magic moment of theatre was created by this South Korean ensemble that arrived in Düsseldorf fresh from theEdinburgh Festival.
Last week I met a Korean curator who told me 'oh Eun-Me Ahn, she's kind of crazy ...!" and my, she wasn't wrong. This piece is crazy, but in the nicest, nicest possible way. It was simply sensational!
The Life of Princess Bari is a real mix of the traditional Korea and very modern dance, hip hop even. The live percussionists left of the stage had everyone raptured in their seats with the energy they were immersing us in, an elderly gentleman in a wheelchair right in front of me bopped away for ages with such a lovely smile on his face. It was such a joy to see the artists and audience have so very much fun.
How can I describe the piece? It was kind of like a mix of Alice in Wonderland meets The Yellow Submarine in an Asian world. It's all still swirling around in my mind, I'd love to go again, but am seeing French illusionist tonight, Le Soir des Monstres,at the Tanzhaus NRW this evening, also part of the incredible altstadtherbst that we are so very lucky to have here in the city every fall.
Go see! There are still tickets available for Princess Bari tonight and Saturday and to all who are going, including our lucky winners, you are in for a real treat! Lucky you!
It's affectionately called British/German Power Pop, the new CRYSSIS CD "Simple Men" will make you want to dance! It's that simple! Released on Drumming Monkey Records, there's no doubt that the deep music vibe between CRYSSIS founders Dick York and Vom Ritchie (from Düsseldorf's own 'Toten Hosen', one of Germany's biggest bands) has brought a brand new flavor to an old-school touch from the 70's and 80's, where these songs were first written and performed.
The official Release-Party on September 17 will definitely be a not-to-be-missed "back to the roots" event!
The State Collection of Art, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen is celebrating 50 years in existence with a special KPMG evening on September 7. Both museums, K20 and K21, will be open until 10pm. Free admission is from 4pm. The golden annivesary will be special celebrated with 'behind the scenes' tours and events in both houses, dance, literature and music and German bratwurst with gold-leaf!
Today RhineBuzz gives you have a chance to win the first of 2x5 tickets for the altstadtherbstwhich begins on September 14.
The first tickets we are giving away are for the performance of "The Life of Princess Bari" by the Eun-Me Ahn Company on Saturday September 17 at 8pm at the Festival Marquee on Burgplatz. This wonderful piece will move your very soul as you are transformed into a moving world of an east-western atmosphere that combines dance, music and language.
Take a look at the altstadtherbst programmeand the first person to send an email to win@rhinebuzz.com telling us which country the Eh-Me Ahn Company is from wins the tickets!
The Düsseldorf city calender is absolutely packed with great events all year round but a true personal favourite is the altstadtherbstwhich kicks off with a splendid sold-out opening concert on September 14 of Haydn and Mozart.
RhineBuzz is delighted to be able to give away 5x2 tickets for this eclectic festival of the performing arts which invites artists from all around the globe to charm and entertain us with everything from 'animation on stage' to opera to circus to a Russian playing an alphorn (!) at the most varied locations of our city from banks to industrial areas, Düsseldorf International Airport to the stunning museum K21, the Tonhalle to churches and the festival marquee which is erected especially on Burgplatz.
I interviewed Christiane Oxenfort, fellow opera scout, in the spring for the 'We Love Love Music' tour and gained an inside peek into how this wonderful festival has grown over the years and I can only say that I am in awe of how she and her business partner Andreas Dahmen have put this remarkable event together.
Happily, happily, the website is now in Englishand in the next few days I'll be posting personal recommendations to help you around deciding which concerts you might like to be heading to. The wonderful programme is just packed with so many amazing artists and ideas, you will so be missing out if you don't book yourself a few tickets now. Tickets can also be purchased during the festival at the box office by the marquee, but some concerts do sell out fast so take a look now!
Today, as the German broadcaster WDR 4 accompanies us on the "We Love Music" Tour at 3pm through town we will be giving tickets away to our tour guests and on Monday we'll be giving the first tickets to the readers of this site.
So watch this space and in the meantime we are wishing have a great, sunny weekend hopefully packed with great sounds and wonderful memories. Hope to see some of you at the Golzheim Festival this afternoon too .... :)
Due to the weather this has now been moved to the café in Stahlwerk
The very lovely Carmen Brown and her band the Elements will be giving a free, feel-good, funky concert at the beach bar Treibgut this Friday September 2.
Spent the afternoon with Carmen yesterday as she joined us for the "We Love Music" tour for the newspaper Bild.
with Rafael Minarro, Tim D. Morand and Carmen Brown on Ratinger Strasse
Carmen's so bubbly, so just ... gorgeous, her sunshine manner is quite simply infectious, her gig at the Jazz Rally in June had everyone up and bopping - you'll be so missing out if you don't come along ...
Come and join us for the Golzheim Festival on Saturday September 3 from 3pm around the area of the Theodor Heuss Bridge on the Golzheim side.
You really shouldn't miss this wonderful free festival on the banks of the Rhine. Headlining this year will be Laura Vane and the Vipertonesfrom Brighton at 5pm, so come prepared for great party!
Live music carries on at the outdoor stage up to 10pm and then well into the night with a Unique Session at the Blue Note on Kurze Strasse 13 in the Altstadt.
On Sunday there will be a kiddies flea market and outdoor disco.
Many thanks to Tracy Bymoen from Canada who I took care of during the Jazz Rally in June for Düsseldorf Marketing and Tourism. I introduced her to some of the most musically talented people we have in the city for a great video she then made about the music festival and our city.
Today this has been approved by CNN and I know that all involved will be delighted to hear this.
Thanks guys, you are all simply brilliant and it's an absolute pleasure to work with you and see what RhineBuzz has turned into!
Tracy films Tim at Düsseldorf International Airport,Cluesoplayed Hangar 8
Tim held court, giving the tour in German and engrossing and entertaining all around once again.
Tim and Antenne Düsseldorf
As Tim talked about Henry Storch outside his club the Blue Note on Kurze Strasse in the Altstadt I was able to give away Maxi CD's by Laura Vane who is on Henry's Unique record label, kindly given to me by henry earlier in the day.
Laura and the Vipertones will be playing at the The Golzheim Festival at 5pm under the Theodor Heuss Bridge on September 3. Join us for the tour at 3pm in the Altstadt and then we will all rush over to the Festival for what is guareented to be a rocking show. I met Laura in Stone last year and believe me, she puts on a wonderful show.
To finish the tour we were delighted to have two tenors from the Chorus of the Deutsche Oper am Rhein, Andreas Schönbergand Luis Fernando Piedra.
Some of our guests had tears in their eyes. I just love doing this, gently cojoling people into experiencing something they might not normally.
I am delighted that Tim and I are able to turn the tour into such a memorable event as we know so many people in musical professions in the city who are happily keen to help out. The surprised faces of our guests are such a joy to see!
Responses to the tour were excellent; we already have new people interested in visiting the Opera with the RhineBuzz group on one of our monthly visits, another visitor said the highlight for her was discovering that we had such an excellent all-round music man as Henry Storch right here, a local Düsseldorfer, and others were just astounded at the little dip into history they discovered about their hometown hearing tales of Schumann and Mendelssohn who once worked avidly here in their neighbourhood!
This couple came from Dortmund for the tour!
"We Love Music", all fixed tours in German at 3pm beginning from the tourist information Altstadt, €10 per person. Tours in English also possible, please enquire to tours@rhinebuzz.com
Turner Prize winner Tomma Abts is a German artist and professor at Düsseldorf’s Kunstakademie (art academy). From 16 July to 09 October 2011, theKunsthalle Düsseldorfwill be exhibiting 12 of her canvases and a series of previously unknown drawings, exploring the relationship between space, lines and shapes. Abts, who currently lives in London, has already had her work featured by numerous internationally renowned art institutes.
The special thing about Abts’ paintings is that she only creates between two and eight a year because each one is subject to a painstaking production and correction process. The paintings have various things in common – each one is made up of geometric shapes painted in oil and acrylic on a 48 x 38 cm portrait format and each one is made up of multiple layers (sometimes you can even catch glimpses of the original canvas), which – as one journalist pointed out – makes you feel as if you “could really dive in and get lost in the picture”. Despite their common features, each painting is unique and there is always something new to discover.
At first glance, the paintings might not appear like much, but when you take a closer look you realise that they have more to offer. In homage to her birthplace of Kiel, Abts has given each of the paintings a person’s name from this area. I must admit that the one pictured here (Feio) actually reminds me of turquoise chopsticks tugging at black noodles surrounded by swirls of ketchup and mayonnaise! This kind of art may seem inaccessible to some, but it’s interesting to analyse and ask yourself what it means to you personally – other motifs that I personally recognise are lightning, rope, a windmill and waves, but why not see for yourself – this interesting (and very different) exhibition is certainly worth checking out!
The admission price is EUR 5.50 for adults and EUR 3.50 for concessions
I'm delighted to be freelancing forDüsseldorf Marketing and Tourismby setting up schedules and taking care of more and more international journalists and tour operators who are interested in knowing more about our wonderful city. Today we are very pleased to see that CNN have approved this video byTracy Bymoen from Canada who was here over the Jazz Rally in June.
Apart from showing her around the city's music scene, I was happy to introduce her to Emil Schult as we took a look around the Arts Academy where Emil was a student of Joseph Beuys and Gerhard Richterfrom 1968 -72.
This was a very special RhineBuzz project bringing together the best of our city. My heartfelt thanks goes to Emil Schult for this rare chance to see his view of the oldest arts academy in Germany and Henry Storch of the Düsseldorf label Unique Records for the soundtrack fromLaura Vane who will be playing here in Düsseldorf on September 3 at the Golzheim Festival and to Tracy Bymoen - thank you!
iReport —
DUSSELDORF, GERMANY
Emil Schult is best known for his work with Kraftwerk, the internationally famous band formed in Dusseldorf in 1970.
However, Schult prefers to be known for his art these days. And when he is not working on his own art, he is mentoring art students, many of them from the Kunstakademie, Germany's largest and most forward thinking art school. It's a place close to Schult's heart, as he was once a student there himself.
I had the rare opportunity to peak inside the doors of the Kunstakademie with Emil Schult. As you'll see in this short interview and tour, Schult has an inspiring view of what defines art...and he is passionate about the need for more creativity in the world.
