#bechange - Improvised Sounds of Sustainability with Stegreif at the IKMZ of the BTU Cottbus-Senftenberg

Forest fires and water scarcity, coal mining and wind energy: these are just a few of the phenomena around the topic of "sustainability" pointing in the most diverse directions, in which the opportunities and threats of structural and climate change are currently most noticeable for Brandenburg in general and for the "stark region of Lausitz" in particular.

"Fire and water, earth and air: this is the unity of those Four Elements pointing in all directions, whose regional attributions of meaning we want to trace from an aesthetic perspective," says Prof. Gregor Fuhrmann, head of the Instrumental and Vocal Performance and Teaching study programme at the BTU. Viola Schmitzer and Immanuel de Gilde from "Stegreif - The Improvising Symphony Orchestra" emphasize: "We therefore consider Cottbus and Lusatia to be exactly the right place to deal with the topic of 'sustainability' in a musically creative way within the framework of a compressed four-day intensive workshop."

Together with the seven-member team from Stegreif, the participants* recruited from students and faculty at the BTU will explore from July 20-23, 2023, how fire can be reflected in music, how water can be awakened through sound, how earth can be bundled through words, and how air can be transformed into space through gestures.

The results of the workshop are to culminate in a final concert, which the initiators of the cooperation project want to combine with another challenge: "As the final goal of our polyphonic play with the four elements, we are aiming for a public concert performance in which an ensemble formed in the course of the workshop will make the multi-story architecture of the library building created by Herzog & de Meuron at the main campus of the BTU resound according to a jointly found concept," summarizes Prof. Fuhrmann.

Brandenburg is just one of 16 German states in which the musicians of the Stegreif Orchester are making a stop. Here, the workshop will take place at the Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus-Senftenberg (BTU) in cooperation with the Institute of Instrumental and Vocal Performance and Teaching under the direction of Prof. Dr. Gregor Fuhrmann, holder of the Chair of Music Pedagogy. In the list of diverse venues of the impromptu workshop tour, the BTU is the only university participating in the implementation of the innovative concept.

"#bechange: 17 Sounds of Sustainability" is a musical invitation to get involved and think, feel and create something new. At the end of the Germany-wide project, which is funded by the Federal Commissioner for Culture and the Media Claudia Roth, all the experiences and lessons learned during the year-long workshop work will be incorporated into a summing-up "Symphony of Change," which will celebrate its premiere at the Bonn Beethovenfest on September 8, 2023.