The two-day festival “Bauhaus Music. I Feel Air from Another Planet”, organised by the Bauhaus-Archiv / Museum für Gestaltung, will take place on 13 and 14 November at St. Elisabeth. Under the theme “Sound as Colour, Colour as Sound”, it explores the concept of synaesthesia and invites visitors to experience sound, colour, space, the body and movement in a new light. The concert programme, focusing on modernist music, ranges from avant-garde and classical to experimental and jazz. On 14 November, it will be accompanied by workshops on the Bauhaus theory of harmonisation at the Temporary Bauhaus Archive in Berlin-Charlottenburg.
Image above: Theodore Lux Feininger, Mitglieder der Bauhaus-Kapelle, Ernst Egeler, Hermann Clemens Röseler und Xanti Schawinsk, um 1928, Bauhaus-Archiv Berlin.
The evening concert on Friday 13 November explores various approaches to the Gesamtkunstwerk – a theme that was also central to the Bauhaus. Dorothea Röschmann (soprano) and the Deutsches Kammerorchester Berlin, conducted by Karl-Heinz Steffens, will perform works by Lyonel Feininger, Richard Wagner, Arnold Schoenberg and Stefan Wolpe. Schönberg’s musical setting of the confession “I feel air from another planet” serves as the guiding principle for music that leaves familiar structures behind and opens up new realms of listening and perception. The evening concert brings together different representatives of artistic thinking that pushes boundaries.
Saturday 14 November begins with two workshops: “Kandinsky Synths” from 11.00 am to 12.30 pm and from 12.30 pm to 2.00 pm. Drawing on Wassily Kandinsky’s theory of colour and form, homemade mini-synthesisers make colours audible and allow participants to experience synaesthetic perceptions. From 2.30 pm to 4 pm, the workshop “Left Hand Yellow!” invites participants to explore Gertrud Grunow’s theory of harmonisation through movement, colours and their own bodies. All workshops are free of charge and take place at the Temporary Bauhaus Archive in Berlin-Charlottenburg.
The three guided concerts on Saturday, 14 November, are entirely dedicated to the festival’s theme “Sound as Colour, Colour as Sound”. At St Elisabeth’s, the programme features piano works by Scriabin, Liszt, Ligeti, Messiaen and Takemitsu, starting at 5 pm. This will be followed at 6.30 pm by Messiaen’s “Quatuor pour la fin du temps”. The piece combines birdcalls with unusual rhythms, thereby challenging our usual sense of time. To round off the evening, “The Bauhaus-Kapelle Bauhaus Music” will perform music by Duke Ellington from 8 pm. The performance brings together jazz, Bauhaus history and a diverse range of musical timbres.
To mark the festival, Capriccio is releasing the world premiere recording of Marc Blitzstein’s opera Parabola and Circula. This unique “Cubist opera” was rediscovered as part of the “Bauhaus Music” research project and will receive its concert premiere in 2025 at the Musikfest Berlin in the Berlin Philharmonie.
Since 2021, the Bauhaus Archive / Museum of Design has been investigating the connection between the Bauhaus and music as part of an interdisciplinary research project. In 2023, the findings of the research project were presented for the first time as part of the Bauhaus Music festival. In 2024, the festival’s theme was “Freedom”. In 2025, Bauhaus Music was a guest at the Musikfest Berlin, featuring, amongst other things, the world premiere of Marc Blitzstein’s opera “Parabola and Circula”.
WHEN?
Friday, 13. November – Saturday, 14. November 2026
WHERE?
St. Elisabeth-Kirche
Invalidenstraße 3
10115 Berlin
COST?
Admission per concert: 15 EUR
Reduced: 8 EUR
