Short Concerts during Long Nights 08. July 2022

#tuberlin #arts #technical

More than 60 solo concerts for only 1 listener took place at three special locations on the campus of the Technische Universität Berlin for the Long night of the Sciences on 2nd July. A team of freelance musicians and hosts transformed the book stacks of the university library, an old lecture hall and the "Energy in Motion" exhibition space into three concert halls - 10 minutes concert slots, all night long.

For the visitors, this format was a musical contrast programme after all the scientific and technical experiments and impulses that the Long Night has in store throughout Berlin. But these personal encounters at eye level are also very special moments for our musicians. Musician Maria Reich lets us share her rich world of thoughts:

There is hardly any music-making for me that is more extraordinary. The other person sits down silently in front of me, we look into each other's eyes for a minute, then the playing begins. For me, this situation has something very "mediumistic" about it... I always improvise in these settings and when I succeed in jumping into the unknown, all kinds of surprising things unfold. It always makes me feel humile and grateful about the medium and magic of music. After 11 minutes we look into each other's eyes again in silence, it speaks more than words. And yet it is always new, always different. Then my counterpart quietly leaves the room.

If I am lucky, I experience oneness with everything. As if the ego would briefly step back, the quick thinking, the (primal) dividing flor of thoughts. And in the mutual gaze a truth is revealed that we all sometimes suspect and that David Bohm, quantum physicist and philosopher, describes as follows: "Every division we make is the result of our way of thinking. In reality, the whole world is made up of interflowing transitions." They say consciousness only exists in the singular... and it seems to me that sometimes, in inner leisure, we are allowed to awaken to it. What a gift...

Many thanks to all the listeners for the gift of their attention.