KURTWEILL Oct 11, 2018 to May 5, 2019 FESTIVAL A Story of Immigration Kurt Weill FESTIVAL Presented by the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the A Story of Immigration University at Buffalo College of Arts and Sciences’ Arts Collaboratory Kurt Weill became an American from the day he landed in Manhattan in 1935. He told Time Magazine: “Americans seem to be ashamed to appreciate things here, I’m not.” Please join us for a full season of events exploring the timeliness of Kurt Weill’s story. How did he transform himself into an American? A Broadway composer? What, precisely, did America mean to him? Performances, talks, and master classes examine his work in the context of his and our time. Kurt Weill’s life was short but productive. The half-century in which he lived was turbulent: 1900–1950. He was born in Dessau, Germany to a father who made A Story of Immigration his living as a cantor in the local Jewish synagogue. Weill’s musical gifts were immediately recognized, and as a young man he studied music at Berlin’s Hochschule fur Musik under Englebert Humperdinck and Ferruccio Bursoni. Nazi Germany turned Weill into a refugee and then an immigrant. While still in Germany, Weill wrote music in direct opposition to the rise of Hitler and was so hurt by his forced immigration to the United States that he fully renounced being a German. His music reflected as much. While in Germany he focused largely on art song and kept with German classical traditions; once in America, he scrupulously studied American popular song, and used his classical training to create a genre all its own. Weill’s music does not fit neatly into any one niche. Cabaret, string quartet,

WEILL German lied, Broadway: there was no style of composition he had not mastered. It was once claimed by some that the German Weill and the American Weill were two different composers, the former a true musician of the highest form, the latter a sell-out and slave to fame and fortune. Yet Weill himself rejected that An exemplary immigrant, Kurt Weill was notion, famously stating: “I have never acknowledged the difference between the leading German opera composer of his serious music and light music. There is only good music and bad music.” generation before fleeing Hitler Composed in response to the turbulent political times in which he lived, Kurt Weill’s stage works find new resonance today as many of those same issues “Wherever — and becoming a Broadway star. persist. His operas and musical theater works address subjects – such as the I found decency KURT FESTIVAL His saga has never been more timely immigrant experience (Street Scene), interracial conflict (Lost in the Stars), greed, corruption, exploitation of the poor (The Threepenny Opera, Seven Deadly Sins, and humanity or inspirational. Happy End) – that continue to resonate in today’s headlines. He championed in the world, the marginalized and oppressed in his works throughout his career, constantly seeking new ways to give voice to the disenfranchised as he explored new it reminded musical forms and crossed stylistic boundaries. Whether antidote or allegory, me of America.” Weill’s works offer a response to a changing (or unchanging) world. The Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and the University at Buffalo College of Arts — Kurt Weill (1947) and Sciences’ Arts Collaboratory are pleased to present this unique exploration of Weill and his times. We invite you to join us often throughout the season to experience his work firsthand!

786 Delaware Avenue With special thanks to The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music for support of this project. Buffalo, NY 14209

Tue Oct 30, 7:30pm Thu May 2, 7:30pm Kleinhans Music Hall Fri May 3, 7:30pm (Stage Seating) Sat May 4, 2pm & 7:30pm Sun May 5, 2pm Weill and Blitzstein: Drama Theatre, UB Center for the Arts KURTWEILL String Quartets THE THREEPENNY A quartet of talented BPO musicians take on two seminal early pre-war works, OPERA FESTIVAL Kurt Weill’s String Quartet No. 1, Op. 8 and Book and Lyrics by Bertolt Brecht, A Story of Immigration Marc Blitzstein’s “Italian” String Quartet. Music by Kurt Weill, English Adaptation Other Events presented in collaboration by Simon Stephens, Produced by with the BPO Weill celebration Andrea Cone and Amy Licata, violin the UB Department of Theatre and Dance Wed Oct 10, 4pm Janz Castelo, viola Eva Herer, cello A milestone of 20th century music theatre, Vocal Master Class photo: Michelle Day Michelle photo: Tickets (BPO): THE THREEPENNY OPERA reaches its 90th Lisa Vroman, soprano $25 general admission; $10 students anniversary in 2018. This gripping, macabre William Sharp, baritone masterpiece, a criticism of capitalism and UB Baird Recital Hall Thu Oct 11, 7:30pm Thu Jan 17, 7pm Thu Mar 28, 7:30pm middle-class morality set in a world of corrupt Mon Nov 19 money and unpunished evil, is one of the most- Baird Recital Hall Free Student Cabaret UB Center for the Arts Kleinhans Music Hall produced works of music theatre worldwide. UB Department of Theatre and Dance Mainstage Theater Degenerate Music: Weill’s celebrated score parodies operatic (Table Seating on Stage) Kurt Weill conventions and embraces the musical styles MusicalFare “Change On Broadway Weill, Eisler of jazz, period dance music, and cabaret. The Wed Jan 16 Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and Schoenberg work’s opening number, “The Ballad of Mack Weill Lecture: Joe Horowitz the Knife,” became one of the most popular Location TBD the World, Adam Turner, conductor Lisa Vroman, soprano Weill, Cello Sonata and Seven Pieces from songs of the 20th century. This newly conceived Fri Mar 8 Symposium It Needs It!” Hudson Shad, vocal quartet The Threepenny Opera (arr. Frankel); Eisler, and designed full production with orchestra visuals by Peter Bogdanoff Humanities to the Rescue A Weill/ Blitzstein/ Brecht Cabaret Duo Op. 7 and 14 Ways of Describing Rain, Op. 70; will be directed and music directed and Cabaret songs of Weill and Schoenberg by Nathan R. Matthews. An Evening with Molly Crabapple This multi-media program explores Weill’s UB Humanities Institute Lisa Vroman, soprano, and William Sharp, with Tiffany Du Mouchelle, soprano, Jonathan dramatic saga of immigration – from Hitler’s Tickets (UB): $20 general public baritone, with pianist Shane Schag Golove, cello, Eric Huebner piano and special Mon Apr 8 One-Day Symposium Germany to Broadway, where his smash hits $10 student/senior admission Join these star performers on stage for were Lady in the Dark and One Touch of Venus. guest Kathrein Allenberg, violin. Sounds: Avant Garde, an intimate and provocatively timely Part One begins with Mack the Knife Tickets (UB): Feb 2-May 12 Modernism and Fascism Dr. Kim Kowalke, President multi-media evening posing the question (condemned by the Nazis) and his Paris sensation $17-$22; seniors/students $12-$17 Photographic Recall: Kurt Weill Foundation for Music, featured speaker The Seven Deadly Sins. Part Two is a sparkling “What is Art for?” “Can it change the world?” Italian Modernist and Fascist UB Humanities Institute Created by Kim Kowalke and Joe Horowitz; and witty Broadway medley including September Architecture in Contemporary visual track by Peter Bogdanoff Song, and Weill himself singing That’s Him. German Photography Just as Weill and Brecht set out to redefine Tickets Tickets (UB): Tickets (BPO): $49 reserved; “opera”, the photographers of this exhibition BPO Box Office: (716) 885 5000 $25 general admission; $15 students $25 general admission; $12 students explore critical visual languages to question the www.bpo.org assumptions about the cultural and political ideologies of the 1920s through 1940s. Just like UB CFA Box Office: (716) 645 2787 Weill and Brecht’s works, these images “dramatize, www.ubcfa.org/tickets they “perform” through compositional and For Updates: First musical formal choices the claims of an authoritarian theater regime and their repercussions today. bpo.org/tickets-events/weill production Die Weill finishes Zaubernacht his music Weill Marries The resulting photographic works are Lisa Vroman William Sharp Shane Schag Adam Turner Hudson Shad premiers in schooling with Lotte Lenya, for examples of art as a critical medium. Street Scene premiers Begins Berlin Busoni the first time UB Anderson Gallery in New York City. collaboration with Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities as part of the “Music Unwound” orchestral consortium. Langston Hughes Alan Jay Lerner 1922 1923 1926 Free provides libretto 1947 on Love Life

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1900 1906 1909 1912 1913 1915-17 1918 1921 1927 1928 1930 1932 1933 1934 1935 1937 1940 1950 Born Kurt Julian Starts Attends Herzogliche Starts piano His earliest Studies piano and theory Weill Begins Bertolt Brecht The Three- The Great Die Burgschaft Weill Hitler solidifies Weill and Lenya Weill and Lenya re-marry Collaborates with Ira Dies from Weill, Dessau elementary Friedrichs- lessons and his prescored with Albert Bing; moves to composition and Weill meet Penny Opera Depression premieres to and dictatorship move to in Westchester County, Gershwin and Moss Hart heart attack, Germany to school Oberrealschule first attempts at composition his wife Edith is the sister Berlin studies with and begin premieres begins – protestors Lenya in Germany. Weill New York City New York; on Lady in the Dark New York City parents of secondary school; writing music is written; of the Expressionist playwright in April Busoni; collaborating in Berlin worldwide, from the Nazi divorce; completes his Weill goes to Hollywood; in Lenya’s Jewish descent. his music teacher Mi Addir. Jewish Carl Sternheim; the Bings later Symphony No. 1 German Party – the work Flee Nazi Symphony No. 2, last eventually produces score arms Father was a is August Thiele and Wedding Song become “second parents” in one economy represents Germany purely orchestrated for filmYou and Me cantor his German teacher to Kurt Weill movement for is greatly artistic defiance in March work. Conducted in is Dr. Max Preitz orchestra affected of the Nazi to Paris Amsterdam and New Kurt Weill Timeline regime York by Bruno Walter