YIVO and Cantana Profana Present Gustav Mahler’s Epic Song Symphony

When: Thursday, November 30th, 2017 | 6:00pm Pre-Concert Lecture (Kovno Room), 7:00pm Concert (Auditorium)

Where: YIVO Institute for Jewish Research at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street • New York, NY 10011

Admission: $25 (General Admission), $15 (YIVO Members and Students)

Reservations Available At: yivo.org/Mahler or at (212) 294-6152

(New York, NY) – The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research presents the “intrepid” (New Yorker) vocal and instrumental chamber ensemble Cantata Profana at 7:00pm on Thursday, November 30th, in Gustav Mahler’s epic song symphony, Das Lied von der Erde (The Song of the Earth). The program places this work, in its chamber orchestral arrangement by Schoenberg and Riehn, in the context of its German and Jewish milieu, pairing it with short works by Arnold Schoenberg, Giacomo Meyerbeer, and Louis Lewandowski, as well as the premiere of a new work by composer Alex Weiser. The program will include a 6:00pm pre-concert lecture by Dr. Daniel Jütte (NYU), sponsored by the Jewish Music Forum, discussing Jewish identity and nineteenth-century musical culture.

Mahler is well known as one of the great symphonists and contributors to the history of Austro-Germanic classical music. Although his work explores German, and even Christian themes, Mahler's Jewish identity is key to understanding his idiosyncratic relationship to German Nationalism and Western culture writ large. The heterogeneity, eclecticism, questioning, intense juxtapositions, embrace of figures on the margins of society, and fascination with the "other" in Mahler’s music can all be understood through the lens of Mahler's Jewish identity, and as sharp critiques of the anti-Semitic worldview espoused by many, including composer Richard Wagner. This concert with its pre-concert lecture will explore Mahler’s music from the Jewish perspective, asking: In what ways is Jewishness a part of Mahler’s music? And, in what ways is Mahler’s music a part of the broader story of Jewish history and culture?

About YIVO

The YIVO Institute for Jewish Research is dedicated to the preservation and study of the history and culture of East European Jewry worldwide. For nearly a century, YIVO has pioneered new forms of Jewish scholarship, research, education, and cultural expression. Our public programs and exhibitions, as well as online and on-site courses, extend our outreach to a global community. The YIVO Archives contains 24 million unique items and YIVO’s Library has over 400,000 volumes—the single largest resource for the study of East European Jewish life in the world. yivo.org / yivo.org/the-whole-story

About Cantata Profana

Cantata Profana is a fearless vocal and instrumental chamber ensemble now entering its sixth season of presenting “every kind of classical music you might imagine” (The New Yorker). The ensemble is devoted to new music, old music “to most anything, so long as the mixture is put together thoughtfully and put across persuasively” (The New York Times). Cantata Profana’s artists combine virtuosic talent with innovative staging, lighting, and design; collaborating to present eclectic and diverse masterpieces with a theatrical flair. We transcend the typical chamber music concert with programming that pulls from every century, allowing pieces to speak to each other across time periods and continents, just as the performers speak to the audience. Each concert offers a never before imagined way of telling stories through music.

In demand across the U.S. and abroad as soloists and chamber musicians, our core artists continue to create some of their best work in their performances with Cantata Profana. We have performed in venues all over New York City, such as Joe’s PUB, Symphony Space, Roulette, Dixon Place, Issue Project Room and the Baruch Performing Arts Center. Cantata Profana has also recently traveled to Avaloch Farm Music Institute in New Hampshire, the Banff Centre in Canada, Connecticut’s Music Mountain, the Princeton Sound Kitchen, and Boston’s Goethe-Institute.

Toggling between our Mainstage productions, smaller Spotlight Series concerts by our core artists, and collaborations with our sister company Heartbeat Opera, Cantata Profana presents an almost gluttonous range of music each season.

About Daniel Jütte

Daniel Jütte is a historian of early modern and modern Europe. He is an associate professor in the Department of History at New York University. His research interests lie in cultural history, urban history and material culture, history of knowledge and science, and Jewish history. He is currently working on a history of transparency from antiquity to modern times.

Jütte is the author of two monographs. His award-winning The Age of Secrecy: Jews, Christians, and the Economy of Secrets, 1400–1800 (Yale University Press, 2015; first German ed. 2011) offers a general history of secrecy in the early modern period, with particular attention to the role of secrecy and secret sciences in Jewish-Christian relations. His second book, The Strait Gate: Thresholds and Power in Western History (Yale University Press, 2015), explores how doors, gates, and related technologies such as the key and the lock have shaped notions about security, privacy, and shelter.

Before joining NYU, Jütte taught as lecturer in the History Department at Harvard University as well as at the University of Heidelberg, from which he earned his Ph.D. in 2010. He has also held a number of fellowships: Junior Fellow in the Harvard Society of Fellows (2011–2015); Fellow at the Wissenschaftskolleg, Berlin (2015–16); and Eurias Fellow at the University of Cambridge (2016–2017). In addition, his work has been supported by the German Research Foundation (DFG), the German National Academic Foundation (Studienstiftung), and the Daimler Benz Foundation.

Jütte has been recognized for excellence in teaching, but he also enjoys engaging non-academic audiences and readerships, e.g., as a contributor to media networks (such as the BBC and Deutschlandradio) and major daily newspapers, including the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Süddeutsche Zeitung, and Die Welt.

About Alex Weiser

Broad gestures, rich textures, and narrative sweep are hallmarks of the “compelling” (New York Times), “shapely, melody-rich” (Wall Street Journal) music of composer Alex Weiser. Born and raised in New York City, Weiser creates acutely cosmopolitan music combining a deeply felt historical perspective with a vibrant forward-looking creativity. Weiser has been praised for writing “insightful” music “of great poetic depth” (Feast of Music), and for having a “sophisticated ear and knack for evoking luscious textures and imaginative yet approachable harmonies” (I Care If You Listen).

An energetic advocate for contemporary classical music and for the work of his peers, Weiser co-founded and directs Kettle Corn New Music, an “ever-enjoyable,” and “engaging” concert series which “creates that ideal listening environment that so many institutions aim for: relaxed, yet allowing for concentration” (New York Times), and was for nearly five years a director of the MATA Festival, “the city’s leading showcase for vital new music by emerging composers” (The New Yorker). Weiser is now the Public Programs Manager at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research where he curates and produces programs that combine a fascination with and curiosity about historical context, with an eye toward influential Jewish contributions to the culture of today and tomorrow.