Snow in May

Finally there will be snow in May, including in the chamber music hall of the Berlin Philharmonic. “If you, mother, go into the mountain, it will snow.” So says the son on the way to Narayama, where old people are brought to be abandoned. Here is an excerpt from the email exchange with the choir mistress, Franziska Welti: for months now we have been working on the piece Snow – On the Inadequacy of Dying [Schnee – von der Unzulänglichkeit des Sterbens] by the Japanese composer Mayako Kubo. Now the premiere is imminent, i.e. things will get serious in just a few weeks. For me it is absolutely a premiere in several respects: the Singfrauen Berlin sing – together with the Classical Lesbians – contemporary music! My wonderful colleague Sibylle Fischer and I are both conducting and have parts as solo singers, and it is the first collaboration between the two choirs. Also taking part is the queer choir Canta:Re conducted by Thomas Noll. That means the audience will be sung to by almost 100 singers…!