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SYMPOSIUM VIENNA’S HISTORY AND LEGACY OF THE PAST 150 YEARS Presented By And FEBRUARY 24, 27 & 28, 2014 THIS PROGRAM IS PART OF THE CARNEGIE HALL FESTIVAL VIENNA: CITY OF DREAMS Dear Friends, On behalf of our Foundation and our co-presenters, I welcome you to this Symposium, “Vienna’s History and Legacy of the Past 150 Years”, part of the Carnegie Hall Festival “Vienna: City of Dreams.” The Chumir Foundation is dedicated to facilitating informed discussion that draws on historic experience and current evidence to increase public awareness and participation in decisions that contribute best to a fair, productive and harmonious society. Three discussion sessions in New York this week will be followed by similar discussions in Canada, in Toronto and Calgary. The program owes its origins to two initiatives: • Carnegie Hall’s festival on Vienna celebrating its cultural history. • The steps taken by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra to discuss its institutional past during the period of the terrible wrongs of Nazism as well as to use its artistry to stir collective memory for communities to learn and not repeat such a distressing history anywhere. It seems incumbent on the rest of us, interested in a healthy society, to respond with a meaningful engagement in dialogue about: • creativity and the effective use of the arts • understanding moral failures in history and how to rebuild trust in shared values to avoid future atrocities • ways and places where societies and governments are engaging in practices that risk unfair or inhumane conditions and what we might do about it. I want to thank each of the panelists for generously bringing their experience and reflections to us. For a dialogue to better our communities, you, the audience, are the measure of any success. We thank you for joining these discussions and hope they prove both informative and constructive. You will find the proceedings of this and other programs on our website. We invite your comments and suggestions. Joel Bell Chairman, Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership 1 Dear Friends, On behalf of Carnegie Hall, it’s my pleasure to welcome you to this special event, part of Vienna: City of Dreams, our citywide festival saluting Vienna’s extraordinary artistic legacy. Vienna has long been known as a crucible for creativity, a cultural capital that has drawn artists, dreamers, and innovators from around the world. The city’s rich cultural landscape, its complex history and evolution has inspired this three-week festival exploration of more than 90 events, both at Carnegie Hall and at 23 partner organizations across New York City. From the very beginning, Vienna has been central to the history of classical music. Highlighting this tradition, Carnegie Hall is thrilled to showcase the artistry of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna State Opera, presenting seven performances by these unparalleled cultural institutions— including two rare operas in concert in New York during the festival. Complementing these symphonic and operatic performances, the Hall will also present chamber music, lieder, electronica, and jazz, offering audiences a musical taste of the city. With each Carnegie Hall festival, we seek to build on our musical program- ming by partnering with leading organizations to provide a broad cultural con- text for our theme. With Vienna, we’ve been spoiled for choices. Thanks to valued partners— including the Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership, host of this impressive set of panel discussions—our festival offerings have grown to span film, photography, art exhibitions, literature, and lectures, inviting audiences to truly explore. As we consider Vienna, a deeper understanding of its history, including efforts being made by many today to reconcile with darker periods of its past, is certainly key to any look at its cultural scene. We would like to thank the Chumir Foundation as well as the University of Vienna and the City of Vienna for so thoughtfully convening these panels of distinguished voices, providing a way for us to meaningfully engage in these important areas of discussion. Clive Gillinson Executive and Artistic Director Carnegie Hall 2 Dear Friends, After the first concert of the Vienna Philharmonic in Carnegie Hall in 1956, the orchestra performed often in New York, but at irregular intervals. Thus the establishment of the “Vienna Philharmonic Week in New York” in 1989, which has taken place every season since then and usually includes three concerts in Carnegie Hall, represents a milestone in the orchestra’s history. This magnificent concert hall has long since become a home away from home for us, and our relationship with the Carnegie Hall staff is just as heartfelt as it is with the New York audiences who have now attended our concerts faithfully for a quarter of a century. It was our desire to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the “Vienna Philharmonic Week” in a special manner and we have been very pleased to see how Clive Gillinson and his staff have developed the idea for the fascinating festival entitled “Vienna: City of Dreams”. We greatly anticipate this special event in which, over the course of seven performances, the orchestra performs compositions written between 1773 and 2010 by 23 composers who worked in Vienna. This year Europe commemorates the centennial of the outbreak of World War I in 1914. This seminal catastrophe of the 20th century, as well as its consequences, will be the subject of panel discussions presented by the Chumir Foundation for Ethics in Leadership and the University of Vienna, for which the Vienna Philharmonic is particularly grateful to Mr. Joel Bell and Prof. Dr. Oliver Rathkolb. Prof. Dr. Clemens Hellsberg Violinist and Chairman of Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra 3 Vienna’s History and Legacy of the Past 150 Years Celebrating the Arts, Learning From Politics, War and Reconciliation PANEL I: VIENNA 1860 TO 1914: CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SCIENCE AND POLITICS PANEL II: HOW DID THE CULTURED, CREATIVE SOCIETY OF VIENNA LOSE ITS MORAL COMPASS - COMING TO TERMS WITH HISTORY PANEL III: A GLOBAL ETHIC, CONTEMPORARY RISKS AND APPROPRIATE RESPONSES – LESSONS OF HISTORY The Symposium at a glance The symposium explores a specific period in history, seeking to inform current thinking and facilitate participation in a dialogue on current conditions and foster action on vital ethical choices: • What makes a community creative, dynamic, productive and comfortable? What can we do to inspire more of what was best about that legacy in our communities today? • What causes a society to become morally destructive? What constructive measures can we take today, some years and even generations of leadership later, to learn from past horrors • Are there signs of trouble around us? What are the prospects of doing what is needed for an ethical outcome? 4 Monday, February 24, 2014 6:00 to 7:30 PM: Program 7:30 to 8:00 PM: Reception Panel I: VIENNA 1860 TO 1914: CREATIVITY, CULTURE, SCIENCE AND POLITICS Panelists Eric Kandel – Neuroscientist, Nobel Laureate, Columbia University Andreas Mailath-Pokorny – Vienna Executive Councillor for Culture and Science Christian Meyer – Director, Schönberg Center, Vienna Dominique Meyer – General Director, Vienna State Opera Helga Rabl-Stadler – President, Salzburg Festival Franz Welser-Möst – General Music Director, Vienna State Opera Moderator Carol Off - CBC Journalist and Author 5 PROGRAM NOTES A DISCUSSION OF: Human creativity and the roots of societal breakdown The role and ethical use of arts in society and politics SUMMARY The arts reflect and can lead their society. As free expressions, the arts enrich life. They support experimentation, tolerance of diversity and shared human experience within and between communities. Vienna in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries was a striking example. Its society was characterized by openness to immigration, diversity, interaction among disciplines and support for the arts and sciences. This proved a breeding ground for an outburst of creativity. The discussion will explore the causes of that creativity's demise, the politicization of the arts and the potential role and responsibility of arts and artists in constructive social initiatives to reduce tensions and divisiveness. BACKGROUND After World War I and the collapse of the Habsburg Empire, the building of an Austrian national identity and pride was assisted by the arts. The Salzburg Festival, first proposed in 1917 and begun in 1920, was conceived by its founders with this among its purposes. UNESCO, discussed by allied world leaders during World War II and established in its aftermath, was intended to advance education and culture internationally as tools of peace. Current examples of explicit political and social purpose in artistic initiatives are seen in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and the Venezuelan-originated El Sistema projects. This discussion will explore the history of Austrian cultural institutions and artists through a period of enormous creativity prior to World War I, and politicization or sentiment at the time in favor of war. Were there forebodings before the war of things to come? What was the position of art and artists during wartime conflict? What are the expectations and responsibilities of artists in such times? The panel will also explore art as free expression versus propaganda. Art serves, is supported by and reflects its society. It may be more or less independent of deliberate influences. This in itself does not make the result good or bad art. Is all art essentially propaganda for its community? The media also reflect society but, in a democratic and pluralistic society, we 6 expect the media to satisfy an ethical standard beyond promoting prevailing government views and practices. Should, we expect better or different behavior from the creative community than from the general public? Is the difference between the diplomatic or social bridging use of art and its propagandistic misuse solely in the eye of the beholder? The panel will consider the constructive potential of the arts as a tool of diplomacy and for the harmonious integration of diversities - healing, bridging and preventing conflict.