WASSERMUSIK AUF DER SPREE
Babylon ORCHESTRA & Sarahbanda make the river Spree resound!
As part of this year’s Berlin Summer Festival of Culture, the two ensembles set sail on two rafts and immersed the audience on the shores between Holzmarkt 25 and Funkhaus Berlin in rousing Mediterranean, Middle Eastern and Caribbean worlds of sound. They droped anchor at the landing stages Mercedes Benz Arena/East Side Gallery and Funkhaus Berlin on Nalepastrasse. At both stops, the ensembles played half-hour concerts, two at the East Side Gallery and one at the Funkhaus.
Also on board was a team from the Abendschau from rbb, who were able to participate directly in the action on the Sarahbanda’s raft:
Abendschau from Monday, 14 August 2023, 7.30 p.m.
Abendschau from Monday, 14 August 2023, 9.45 p.m.
Sarah Willis was still a live guest on rbbkultur on Monday morning!
The programmes
The Berlin-based Babylon ORCHESTRA presents Echoes of the Mediterranean. The programme combines love songs, ballads, personal stories and vocal pieces newly written for the occasion, based on texts by authors who lived in the countries around the Mediterranean or were connected to it in different ways in their lives. The combination of composed and improvised elements, acoustic and electric as well as electronic instruments creates an almost scenic concert that shows the richness of this cultural heritage. Sephardic, Arabic, Turkish and Greek folk songs with new arrangements form the core of this concert programme.
Sarah Willis and the Havana Lyceum Orchestra have formed an intimate bond: their joint project Mozart y Mambo, in which they combine European art music with Cuban rhythms and South American compositions, is enjoying huge success worldwide. For this project, the famous Berliner Philharmoniker’s horn player joins the chamber music ensemble Sarahbanda to enchant the banks of the Spree with Caribbean flair.
Dates & venues
Pier at Reederei Riedel an der East Side Gallery
• 18 – 18:30: Babylon ORCHESTRA
• 18:30 – 19: Sarahbanda
• 20.30 – 21: Babylon ORCHESTRA
• 21 – 21.30: Sarahbanda
Pier at Funkhaus Berlin
• 19:30 – 20: Babylon ORCHESTRA
• 20 – 20:30: Sarahbanda
… and Spreeufer between Holzmarkt and Treptower Park
An event by conc.arts berlin, programme partner of the Kultursommerfestival Berlin 2023. The concerts take place as part of Kultursommerfestival Berlin 2023. The Berlin 2023 Cultural Summer Festival is conceived and implemented by Kulturprojekte Berlin in cooperation with over 100 programme partners on the initiative of the Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.
