making music
For his entry in Munich has Sir Simon Rattle something special: a “Symphonic Hoagascht” with brass bands. The future chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is looking for brass bands from all over Bavaria with whom he wants to give a big concert together with the BR Orchestra in the summer of 2024.
Simon Rattle, who is moving to Munich this year after the Berlin Philharmonic and the London Symphony Orchestra, says he would like to get to know the traditions of his new musical homeland. And how could that be better than by making music together? Throughout his career, the Brit has repeatedly pushed boundaries and sought out connections with people who don’t fit into the mold of classical music. According to the chief conductor, the aim of this unusual Hoagascht is to combine classical symphony with traditional wind music, to bring amateurs and professionals together and to promote exchange between the different music ensembles. In the spring of 2024, workshops with members of the BR Symphony Orchestra are to begin at the respective home towns of the selected groups. On two days of rehearsals in Munich, the “Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale” by Hector Berlioz and a work by Lorenz Dangel composed especially for the ensembles will be rehearsed together. The program is supplemented by traditional brass band music from the ensembles. The final concert with around 300 musicians will take place on July 7, 2024 in the Showpalast in Munich. You can apply until May 26th, information below www.br-so.de.
Help
Awarded the “Munich shines” medal: Gertraud Wicht.
(Photo: Michael Nagy/Press Office)
For their social commitment, the city of Munich Gertraud Wicht awarded the medal “Munich shines” in bronze. The 86-year-old is still helping people in need today. For decades she was involved in helping drug addicts. She was a co-founder of the organization “SOS Addiction without Punishment” – and pioneer of a progressive drug policy in the city to get those affected out of illegality. In addition to her job as a geriatric nurse, she also worked for 17 years as a voluntary drug counselor on the telephone service for the addiction hotline in Munich. And she still knits socks for the homeless.
to honor
FC Bayern player Thomas Müller she will receive this year, the Bavarian State Medal for Social Merit. The actor too Elmar Wepperthe artist from Afghanistan Mahbuba Maqsoodi and Bettina Spahn, head of the Catholic railway station mission, are among the 19 personalities who will be honored by Bavaria’s Minister of Social Affairs, Ulrike Scharf, at Nymphenburg Palace on April 25. Müller receives the medal in his function as ambassador for the “Nicolaidis Young Wings Foundation”, Wepper for his commitment to the “Tabaluga Children’s Foundation” and as patron of the “Retla e.V.” association, which strives to help older people in our society. The award was donated in 1970 by the then Minister of State Fritz Pirkl and has been presented to around 20 personalities every year since then. More than a thousand people have already been honored in this way for their social commitment. Incidentally, suggestions can be submitted informally to the Bavarian Ministry for Family Affairs.
Film
Narges Kalhor.
(Photo: private)
The director Narges Kalhor, 38, is currently shooting the film “Shahid” (Martyr) with a multinational team in Munich. “In my film, I tell the longing to create a new future. A process that begins with turning away from a male-dominated past, but whose end is not clear,” explains Kalhor. Producer Michael Kalb explains that it is a political drama and at the same time a desperate comedy about historical heroes, contemporary criminals and modern women. According to Kalb, the film works with documentary, fictional and performative elements.
The story is based on the experiences and life situation of Kalhor herself. The filmmaker comes from Iran and has lived in Germany since 2009. After she had presented her short film “Die Egge” at the Nuremberg Film Festival of Human Rights, she received hints from her homeland that a return there could be dangerous. Kalhor, whose father was a media consultant under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, stayed in Germany and applied for asylum. She met her homesickness with work. From 2010 Kalhor studied with a scholarship at the Munich University of Film and Television. Her work has received several awards: in 2014, for example, the film “Shoot Me” (co-director: Benedikt Schwarzer) at the Nonfiktionale and in the same year the video “Kafan” at the Munich Underdox Film Festival. Her graduation film “In the Name of Scheherazade or the first beer garden in Tehran” received an award at the Leipzig Documentary Film Festival. “Shadid” is co-produced by ZDF and funded by FFF Bayern, among others.
Protection
Jane Goodall.
(Photo: Amanda Edwards/Getty Images via AFP)
She became famous with her behavioral research on chimpanzees in Tanzania. It started in 1960 and is still committed Jane Goodall tirelessly for animals and the preservation of their natural habitats. She has already received many awards, now there is one more. On May 4th, she will receive an award from the Otto Eckart Foundation in Munich for her youth project “Roots & Shoots”. The Munich-based Jane Goodall Institute uses this money to support projects that sensitize young people to peace and environmental protection. True to the Briton’s motto: “Each and every one of us can do something good, every day.”