|
|
 |
| May 2006 Newsletter |
THE
BIR MIFTUH INTERNATIONAL MUSIC FESTIVAL |
Saturday
13th May at 8.00p.m.
Cello and Piano Recital by the Duo Schmaderer - de Domenico
Sponsored by the German Embassy and the German-Maltese Circle
Din
l-Art Ħelwa is pleased to announce the tenth edition of the Bir
Miftuħ International Music Festival which as in previous years will
be held at the Church of Santa Marija ta' Bir Miftuħ, a gem of
Maltese medieval architecture.
Born
in Munich in 1957, Cornelius Schmaderer started his cello tuition
under the guidance of several distinguished cello teachers. He had two
years of intensive study at the Mozarteum in Salzburg where he was
celloprimo with the Austrian Junior Orchestra.
He was awarded the Concert Diploma from the Music Academy of
Munich. In 1984 he became a member of the State Theatre of Kassel,
Germany and later appointed teacher at the Music Academy there. He has
attended master classes with Misha Maisky, Arto Noras and other high
profile professors.
Kathleen
de Domenico began her music education in Malta. After being
awarded a scholarship in 1965, she furthered her studies in Germany at
the Music Academy of Saarbrücken
and at the Music Academy of Munich from where she graduated with a
Master class Diploma. She has given recitals in Malta and Germany as
well as on German radio stations. She specialises in piano chamber music
and also works as a chamber music accompanist at the Academy of Music in
Munich. The Duo Schmaderer - de Domenico was formed in 1982.
They have a wide repertoire ranging from the Baroque through the
Romantic Period up to the Modern Classic. They have been highly
acclaimed in Germany and the rest of Europe, the Near and Middle East,
parts of Africa and S.E. Asia.
Their
programme features works by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Robert Schumann,
Nikolai Mjaskowsky and Richard Strauss.
Tickets for this concert cost LM8.00 per person, including
refreshments after the performance.
In view of the popularity of these concerts and as the number of
seats is limited, tickets will be issued strictly on a first come first
served basis. Those wishing
to attend are requested to contact Din l-Art Ħelwa Office Tel:
21220358 or 21225952, Monday to Friday between 9.00 am and noon.
|
IRINA PAULS AT MESSINA PALACE |
 Monday,
5th June at 7.00p.m.Talk: "TanzTheater - easy going?" By Irina Pauls Irina
Pauls, at present Artistic Director and Choreographer of TanzTheater
Freiburg-Heidelberg will talk about her work and show
video-examples of her dance-theatre productions. Irina
Pauls was born in Leipzig. She studied dance at the Palucca School Dresden
and choreography at the Theaterhochschule Leipzig.
She worked as Artistic Director and Choreographer at the
Landestheater Altenburg (1985-89).
In 1990 she was appointed as Director of the newly
formed "TanzTheater Irina Pauls" at the Schauspiel
Leipzig where she worked until 1998, creating 15 world premieres.
From 1998-1999 Irina Pauls was Director of Dance Theatre at
the Staatstheater Oldenburg. Since the year
2000 she is engaged with her Compagnie at the
City-Theatre Heidelberg which cooperates with the City-Theatre
Freiburg. She also
worked as guest choreographer at other German Theatres (Schauspiel
Essen, Deutsches Nationaltheater Weimar, Bayrisches Staatsschauspiel
München) and held several workshops in Germany and abroad (Athens,
Kiev, Perm, Dublin). Irina
Pauls is member of the committee of "Internationales
Theaterinstitut" Deutschland.
|
EASTER
GATHERING OF THE TWO GERMAN-MALTESE ASSOCIATIONS
|
  |
|
Some time last year the German-Maltese Association in Adenau and the German-Maltese Circle in Valletta agreed to arrange a joint musical event in Malta. Considering that the 10th anniversary of the twinning between the cities of Mellieha and Adenau was to be celebrated in Malta during the Easter Holidays 2006, Easter Monday was chosen as the most suitable day for the members of the two societies to meet. By
kind courtesy of Fra John Edward Critien, Knight Resident of Fort
St. Angelo, St. Anne Chapel on the upper most level of the Fort was
made available for this occasion. Fort St. Angelo had been fortified
and used by the Order of St. John during its stay on Malta,
thereafter by the British Forces until their departure. In 2001 the
Maltese Government granted the Order of St. John the exclusive use
of the upper part of the Fort for the Order’s international
humanitarian activities. Since then the Chapel of St. Anne has been
beautifully restored in keeping with the original style. The plateau
has been embellished with plants and flowers and the old fountain
and adjacent buildings been restored. It was noticeable with how
much pleasure and pride Fra John explained the features on a guided
tour to our visitors. It is a beautiful spot, close to the sky - and
the windy elements. Both German-Maltese Societies were very grateful
for the possibility to make use of the Chapel as a venue, especially
as not only Adenau has one of the oldest commanderies which was
given to the Order of St. John by Graf von Nürburg in 1162, and
which is still in use in the centre of town, but also knights of the
Order of St. John as well as the German Protestant Johanniterorden
are very active members.
With
time and venue secured, the protagonists had to be found, and in
establishing a quartet of musicians emphasis was placed again on
Maltese and German participation, i.e. guitarist and singer Walter
Micallef and percussionist Renzo
Spiteri, were most willing to play as Maltese participants,
while Ulrike Buhlmann,
bassoon, and Kathrin
Goschenhofer, oboe, came from Berlin to add pieces of their
classical repertoire. This new quartet had practised together for a
few days only, yet surprised the listeners with a very varied and
highly interesting presentation of old and new music in a most
admirable way. For example, there were short works by Bach, Mozart
and Boccherini as well as improvisations by Renzo Spiteri and songs
by Walter Micallef. Very special thanks should also at this point go
to these four musicians, without whose skill and wholehearted
enthusiasm the concert would not have been the same. We
were lucky even as far as the perpetual wind was concerned, the
blowing had calmed down already before the beginning of the concert
so the music was not “accompanied” by any howling in the bell
tower; and later on members from Germany and Malta and guests of
honour for the evening - H.E. The German Ambassador and Mrs. Klaiber
Merten, the Mayor of Adenau Mr. Bernd Schiffarth and Mrs. Schiffarth
and the Mayor of Mellieha Mr. John Buttigieg and Mrs. Buttigieg -
could enjoy conversations outside on the plateau high above the
Grand Harbour in the invigorating evening air. |
Rüdiger
Giebel
|
 A
few weeks ago the German-Maltese Circle offered a short intensive
course on the subject “Reading and Communication Practice”
conducted by Rüdiger Giebel. These sessions were based on the play
“Biedermann und die Brandstifter” by Max Frisch. I joined
one of these sessions and found a very dedicated teacher with whom
German-Maltese Circle students were eagerly discussing the aspects
of the play. After
the lecture Herr Giebel and I got talking, and his wife Gisela Anna
joined us later on. One of my first questions was, of course, how
they had found the German-Maltese Circle. Well, with a preference
for English speaking countries they had made out this Mediterranean
island, where history is still alive and English is spoken. In a
Travel Guide the German-Maltese Circle and its Restaurant
were favourably mentioned and in 2001 they visited Malta for
the first time, lived in Valletta and were quite enthusiastic about
the city’s character. However, only on their second trip in 2003
they became members of the German-Maltese Circle and met Victor
Sammut as well as Joe Borg Camilleri personally. So with the beauty
of the island and the friendships of these gentlemen Malta moved up
on their list of priorities resulting in annual stays – and
hopefully in future annual lecture sessions! Now,
who is Rüdiger Giebel? In the wake of the all destructing confusion
of the war he was born in Georgenswalde an der Samlandküste (a
small town at the Baltic Sea) near Königsberg, today’s
Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave. His father, a teacher of French and
English, from western parts of Germany had been transferred there in
1941 and returned with his family to Papenburg in the Emsland (in
north-western Germany close to the Dutch border) in 1943. This is a
perfectly flat area, ideal for cycling, embedded in large moors with
hundreds of irrigation channels – a beautiful landscape for Rüdiger
and his other eight brothers and sisters to grow up in. After
schooling, including the Advanced Latin Proficiency Examination (großes
Latinum), he studied “Anglistik” (English language and
literature) and Geography in Göttingen and Bonn, as well as at
Trinity College in Dublin, graduating from Heidelberg University
where he successfully completed his studies in 1972. Since then he
has been a full-time teacher and held positions in Grammar Schools
mainly in Baden-Württemberg in the vicinity of Heidelberg. During
this time he was also teaching German for Foreigners at the
International Study Centre of the University of Heidelberg. The
students for these lectures hailed from all over the world, bringing
with them a lot of different cultures and customs. Herr Giebel says:
“These lectures necessitated extensive daily travelling on my
part, but perhaps I enjoyed them most, they gave me a lot of
satisfaction.” During
his student time in Göttingen he met his future wife Gisela Anna,
who studied at the local College of Education; together they had
their first intensive contact with the world beyond Germany’s
borders. It was a Norwegian promoting international understanding,
who in those internationally politically difficult times of 1966
organised a tour to Russia and the Eastern Bloc States, in which
they participated and which even in retrospect still appeared to
have been very exciting and epoch making.
For
some years Rüdiger and Gisela Anna were teaching at different
schools and their two daughters were born. Yet, as happy as they
were, a certain yearning for faraway places took hold of them,
resulting in Rüdiger accepting a position as Exchange Teacher for
one year at the Central Missouri State University, USA, in 1978. In
1996 Rüdiger, his wife Gisela Anna und their younger daughter
Marion moved for a year to Missoula, a University City in Montana in
the Rocky Mountains, USA, where he worked as visiting instructor and
taught German as a foreign language. Here young Marion began her
studies at the local University, met a nice young American man, whom
she married and decided to stay in America, while their elder
daughter Carolina stayed in Heidelberg.
While
Gisela Anna stopped working already in 2000, because she became
seriously ill, Rüdiger retired only in 2005. Since then his time is
filled with hobbies like hiking and playing tennis, reading and
singing in the Bruckner Choir in Neckargemünd, and of course with
travelling. Though they consider Missoula their second home, they
love visiting Malta and “the hearty welcome by the Maltese”
as Rüdiger emphasised; enjoying the spring climate, the quaint old
buses, and the companionship at the local Protestant Andreas Parish
Community.
|
|
EXAMINATIONS |
Goethe Institute Examinations The
German-Maltese Circle reminds interested persons that the following
Goethe Institute Examinations are due in May/June 2006: Grundstufe
Examinations
End
of course examinations
for
the Grundstufe classes (Years 1 and 2) are due in the last week of
June.
Please look out for the next Newsletter for more details
regarding applications and more details. Only those members
whose attendance in the German language Grundstufe courses organised for them during
the scholastic year 2005-2006 has
been 60% or more, will be allowed to sit for the end-of-year
examinations.
The
last lesson for this scholastic year will be on Tuesday, 20th
June 2006. The
Examinations’ timetable can be viewed on the Circle’s
Notice-board or on our webpage:
|
|
© 2006 German-Maltese Circle. All rights
reserved. Terms of Use - Disclaimer
|