News

1. 5. 11

Dear English speaking friends of my musical activities,
I am very sorry that a year has passed by without being able to translate my German news into English. You will understand that because of all my different artist activities, finding enough alone time is not easy. I would need a 30 hour day at least!

Recently I had the idea how to inform you in a more easy way: I have a Facebook fan page where I post my news in English now. I would like to invite you to join my page at http://www.facebook.com/Ute.Neumerkel.Musical.Artist .

 

 

You need not a Facebook account to visit my page. At "Info" you also can find my biography in English. As a Facebook member you may also post comments etc., and if you click the Like button of the page you get my news sent automatically.

Now I want to give you a short summary of the activities I did no longer translate.
In 2010, the year of Robert Schumann's 200th anniversary, I gave several Schumann lied recitals, including large presentation of his life, his youth, Clara, the last years of his illness and his faith. Many historical pictures and the illustrated lied texts were projected.

In summer 2010 I spent five days with Furtwängler's daughter Friederike Kunz. She told me her whole life's story, including many interesting things about her father. I filmed her interview and produced two DVDs for her family. Fortunately, she gave me the permission to publish some excerpts, also about Wilhelm Furtwängler (see FILME, then The film artist).

In December 2010 I gave an Advent program, with singing, piano, organ, introduction and slide show.. This current year began with my first TV event, a live service where I sang and played a Mozart lied and Amazing Grace. I have just finished my special cut of it, including some snap shots of the making of the program along with an earlier Bach organ recording of mine (see FILME, Films of the musician).

Also in January 2011 I produced a 12 minute film about Wilhelm Furtwängler's first Bechstein piano which stands at the C.Bechstein Centre in Berlin. In the film I play and sing some works by Furtwängler on his restored Bechstein and the pianist Furtwängler can also be heard and seen (see FILME, Films of the musician).
Afterwards I produced another family DVD, other film projects will soon follow.

In addition to my English Facebook postings I will try to give some news here from time to time.

 

6. 4. 10

On the 8th of June Robert Schumann was born in Zwickau. I would like to get all Berliners and Berlin tourists who love his music in the mood for his 200th anniversary and invite you to my Robert Schumann program on the 6th of June 2010 at 6 p. m. I will sing and play and tell about Schumann's life (see KONZERTE/EVENTS). Historical pictures and the illustrated Lied texts are planned to be projected.

Berlin was not important in Schumann's life, I could only find three definite visits: In April 1840 Robert and Clara were Felix Mendelssohn's guests, probably in the Mendelssohn estate at Leipziger Straße, including a music room, unfortunately no more standing. Schumann had the pleasure to hear the singing Mendelssohn, accompanied at the piano by Clara, performing his first Lieder.
At the beginning of 1844 Schumann accompanied his wife Clara, the great pianist, at her concert tour, that leaded through Berlin and ended in St. Petersbourg and Moscow.
In March 1847 Schumann conducted the performance of his oratorium "The Paradise and the Peri" at the Berliner Singakademie, which is still standing. At this occasion he also met Fanny Hensel.

While preparing my Schumann concert I dive into a completely unromantic world, following a three months certificated course about "Music Marketing in the Internet", which is being held at the Universität der Künste Berlin for professional musicians. Several experts give a theoretical and practical introduction to self marketing, very useful for an artist like me, standing outside the music business.

 

25. 2. 10

The snow-covered Berlin suggested to take a hibernation time off, just leting mature the Schumann lieder for the summer concerts in tranquillity and only playing some organ and piano music at the Frieden Church from time to time. Instead I have been under the spell of my "box", as I call my computer lovingly.

While producing three complete Christmas films it really gave its best, i. e. in spite of several crashes it finally succeeded in rendering them with all effects and lighting. Now it definitely needs recovery which is my favourite activity. As my film ideas seem to rise at an exponential rate I think about buying a more efficient sister box.

 

 

You are invited to watch my latest creation at the above link: the seven minute film "On the pulse of cosmos", visualizing the music of Merlin Mirando. In the film I use space effects and the first of many animal clips in close-up, originally in HD. Just enjoy!

 

17. 10. 09

I am pleased to be able to present you for the first time some short films of my performing (see FILME page). You may watch me in concert, singing to my own piano accompaniment, and at the organ. Just in time for the 200th anniversary year of Mendelssohn you can also watch my concert introduction to Felix Mendelssohn and one of his songs.

Unfortunately the quality of the films had to be reduced for the web so that in comparison to the reality you only get a vague impression... Thus I would like to invite all those not living too far away from my concerts to please attend.

 

9. 10. 09

As Berlin is over saturated with music you will rarely find a full auditorium at a lied recital by an unknown singer. But this happened at my concert titled "Nur wer die Sehnsucht kennt..." on the 28th of August. As we took a video of the entire programme you may taste some little extracts on the FILME page as soon as I have accomplished the technical task of producing them, though in a very reduced resolution.

The revival of my organ playing already brings practical results: About once a month I play at the service of the Frieden Church (Berlin-Charlottenburg, Bismarckstr. 40). Besides the chorales, four or five pieces for organ or piano find a thankful and numerous audience.

Recently several concerts have been planned at the Frieden Church, the first one titled "Music in the Christmas Garden" on Friday the 18th of December at 7 p. m. During the concert the audience will walk around the stations of the Christmas story in the garden, while I change from the organ to the piano and vice versa. (For the concert announcement and dates of my organ playing click the link FRIEDENSKIRCHE at the LINKS page)

 

12. 7. 09

All Berlin tourists are warmly invited to witness my Lied recital on Friday the 28th of August (see EVENTS). Thus my organ rediscovery process which I just began to enjoy has to be delayed.

 

18. 6. 09

I have just received a comment by Dr. Friedhelm Schöning to my CD "Wilhelm Furtwängler - Die Lieder" (see COMMENTS). Dr. Schöning was co-founder and first chairman of the Wilhelm-Furtwängler-Gesellschaft from 1976 to 2005.

 

11. 6. 09

The last few months have been very busy and hectic around here! Let me share with you the results of all this furious activity.

First, the most interesting of my former concerts and rehearsals are now digitally saved on DVD in the professional DSD format with the highest possible definition. The transfer process took many hours and I am most grateful to Hanno Ising who, with me, transferred the recordings. In the autumn, after summer vacation, I will offer you the first one or two CDs of my CD Live Edition.

In addition, I just completed the design and programming of the website "Merlin's Spacemusic" for Dr. Wiedemann, complete with an astral look and flying saucers! To visit his website go to www.merlinsspacemusic.de (or see LINKS). I want to point out that the sound element is very important in Merlin Mirando's music, thus you will be much more impressed by it from a CD played on a good audio system than by the MP3 format on a computer.

Preparations are going quite well for my planned music video clips. My new video camera is working out well and making films at the computer is much easier to do now.

After all this, I am finding more time for the joys of making music again. Over the summer I have arranged to have access to an organ and will be able to revive my organ playing skills and experiment with accompanying my singing at the organ.

We'll see how all that comes out!

19. 1. 09

According to my plans at least a part of my third CD should have been already recorded. But my dear friend, my Bechstein piano, does not go along with it. Its hammer felts can sound astoundingly beautifully, but because it dates from 1928 and as they are now super thin, they miss completely the elasticity of their young years. Thus intonation is nearly impossible, the sound of the notes is uneven. Also its wonderful singing legato is only possible after a long period of silence.
The Furtwängler recordings already were a tightrope walk because of the felts. Any future recordings seem now to be a superhuman task. So the difficult question is if and how to restore my Bechstein.

On the other hand, after two years of incessant one woman promotion and music production I feel a certain need of a creative pause. However, If you engage me now, if you organize a concert for me or if you would like to sponsor my next CD I will immediately commit myself to the musical work again. Otherwise I might allow myself to take a break, until I bring the next project into the world.

Of course I am not completely inactive, my computer alone keeps me in motion. After only nine months of use it required me to pass a crash course in error management, virus protection and recovery - a real vacation!

After a hopefully quick recuperation of my electronic secretary (heart and kidneys have been already checked, but a brain wash is obviously still needed) I will prepare a CD Live Edition for the collectors of my music, containing the best recordings of rehearsals and live events. There exist several beautiful recordings of sacred music, Early Music and Lieder.

Moreover I continue to learn all about the possibilities of film processing at the computer. Unfortunately my computer (though a multimedia high quality laptop fit for blueray) has such severe problems digesting my high definition film clips, that it often collapses and thus rather delays the long awaited premiere of my first documentary with music - the principal actors being the members of my family.
Even this creative intermezzo serves my music project, as I plan to take some film clips and offer them on my website sometime later this year, so that especially all those living far away on the globe can experience my singing, playing and moderation visually, and thus more intensely.

19. 11. 08

Dear friends, dear honoured guests,

It is a joy for me to send my latest child, the full version of my website, into the world!

As you can see I did the job of a romantic webdesigner. I enjoyed this as I like to play with colour shades and combinations and arrangements of pictures. Unfortunately the colours are different on every screen, but according to my tests at least the colour harmony always remains.

An abundant thank you goes to my webmaster Andreas Wernicke. He introduced me patiently into the secrets of web programming, he programmed four pages to start with as a prototype and he always found the solution whenever it was too difficult for me. Andreas Wernicke is a singing teacher for natural singing, whom I can recommend very much (see LINKS).

I would like to give many thanks also to Dr. Robert Rivard, who always helped me in all questions of English translation. His warm recordings of some of the most interesting piano works by Wilhelm Furtwängler are worth visiting his website to hear (see LINKS).

After months that I spent day and night at the computer I can finally put my focus again on music...

On the MUSIC page you are invited to hear me for the first time in recordings of music by several Early Music composers and in sacred music sung in an actual church setting.
However, I am not completely satisfied with the sound from the MP3 files as they only give you an approximate impression of the music as heard through the limited capacity of most computer speakers. The brilliant overtone spectrum of my voice demands too much of these mini-speakers and I cannot filter out the beautiful shining heard in my voice just to accommodate them!
Nevertheless, I rather hope you can enjoy them as several of my test listeners have already or that you will otherwise try to hear the music under better conditions. I would be pleased to share your experiences.

And here comes the latest collection of news concerning Furtwängler's lieder:
My English translation of the CD-booklet is now available as a download for all foreign listeners (see CDs). In October 115 CDs were flown out to Japan, for the Furtwängler-enthusiastic members of the "Wilhelm Furtwängler Centre of Japan". The Chinese student Yijun Guo, connoisseur of recordings featuring works by Furtwängler that even I did not know, is going to put a link to my website on the biggest Chinese download site for classical music.

Finally, I got a nice response from Mrs. Prof. Ina Conrad of Austria to my Furtwängler CD newsletter which I sent to the adherents of the "Wilhelm Furtwängler Gesellschaft." As a student she had simply asked of Furtwängler whether she could listen to his rehearsals, and thus she witnessed many rehearsals, concerts, recordings and conversations with Furtwängler, often sitting next to Elisabeth Furtwängler in the box. Her letter ends: "Furtwängler leaded me my whole life; only someone who has witnessed that can fully feel this luck."

After our little trip around the world let us return to my home city Berlin. Here you can find my Furtwängler lieder CDs at the first addresses: At "Dussmann" (at the beginning among the new releases, recently several copies in the Furtwängler partition) and in the shop of the Philharmonie.

I wish you an enjoyable visit of my website, but above all that my music might touch you here or there!

 

Ute Neumerkel