When the international Mizmorim Chamber Music Festival focuses on the encounter of old and new Jewish and Western art music, it wants nothing more than to build bridges between different religions and traditions, always driven by the desire and the attempt to fertilize and promote the understanding of cultures beyond current political developments. This was the desire and the reason why the Israeli-born musician Michal Lewkowicz, who lives in Basel, launched this unique festival in 2015. Under the guiding principle of exile, Mizmorim presents around thirty artists and ensembles, two world premieres and several Swiss premieres in 2025.
"Exile - a theme that runs through the entire history of mankind. And a theme that has been etched into the collective memory of Judaism. It may even have become the trauma of a people that was shaped more than others by persecution and expulsion, but which also became a community of destiny as a result. Can injustice also be the root of community and cultural identification? The 11th Mizmorim Chamber Music Festival embarks on a search for traces of the extent to which the forced waves of emigration and the life of Jews in exile over the last hundred years have contributed to a renewal and fertilization of culture as a whole and musical culture in particular - our own as well as that of others." Michal Lewkowicz
Michal Lewkowicz, founder and artistic director of the Mizmorim Chamber Music Festival © Benedek Horváth
In this respect, one question - however paradoxical it may sound - is quite obvious: can the phenomenon of exile also be positive? Of course, involuntary migration is always associated with restrictions. And yet people always see this kind of foreignness as an opportunity. Isn't it even the case that the great waves of migration in history have often contributed to a renewal and fertilization of the culture of the respective countries? Is it not the case that Kurt Weill developed into a musical composer in America? Isn't it true that the starting signal for Arnold Schönberg's worldwide triumph of twelve-tone theory was given in Los Angeles? And that Erich Wolfgang Korngold won two Oscars in his American exile?
The Mizmorim Chamber Music Festival 2025 sharpens the senses by presenting music from the hundred or so years since the First World War, illuminating exile experiences and their effects and making them tangible. To name just a few highlights: Igor Stravinsky's Histoire du soldat, Erich Wolfgang Korngold's Fünf Lieder op. 38, Leo Ornstein's Piano Sonata No. 4, Olivier Messiaen's Quatuor pour la fin du temps, Kurt Weill's Cello Sonata...
No less exciting are the performers: the Gringolts Quartet, violist Lawrence Power, pianist and winner of the Concours Géza Anda Anton Gerzenberg, soprano Silke Gäng, media artist Janiv Oron as Artist in Residence, Jewish rapper, singer and performer Lea Kalisch, singer Ruben Drole, plus another Artist in Residence, this year's Composer in Residence Hed Bahack, and many more.
January 29 to February 2, 2025
Advance booking from November 21, 2024
https://mizmorim.com
Media artist Janiv Oron is Artist in Residence 2025 © Flavia Schaub
