"Lieder für das Jetzt" is the name of the series curated by Lied pianist and lyricist Daniel Gerzenberg and lyricist and essayist Max Czollek at the Heidelberger Frühling Musikfestival 2022.

The boundaries and meanings of song were explored in four evenings – from the tradition of political song poetry to a new post-migrant canon, from the relationship of the authors to art to poetry and songs in the mirror of new musical techniques.

The series wanted to paint as colorful a picture as possible of how song might sound in the present. Acknowledging existing traditions, searching for buried or forgotten archives, asking how this society became what it is today and what voices are needed to come to terms with the present.

Deutschland im Winter, March 30, 2022, Dezernat 16

The tradition of political song poetry closely links the art song with the struggles and defeats of past centuries. In this genre, music and politics were not opposites, but in many cases occasions and places of action. Whether as composition, improvisation or recitation. A prelude to a present in which art is once again increasingly called upon to take a stand.

Max Czollek Poetry
Hagar Sharvit, vocals
Martine-Nicole Rojina , sound art and direction
Daniel Gerzenberg, piano & poetry

Radikale Verletzbarkeit, April 4, 2022, Frauenbad Heidelberg

Hardly any genre is so closely connected with the question of inwardness and subjectivity as the art song and poetry. But is this true at all and whose subjectivity is meant by it? And what about contemporary literary and musical practices? An evening that listens to these questions between cliché and irritation, canon and intervention.

Anna Hetzer, poetry
Marie Heeschen, vocals
Claudia Chan, piano

Postmigrantisches Lied, April 13, 2022, St. Paul Boxberg

The German present and history are characterized by migration. And this also applies to music, which has never adhered to national boundaries. New old melodies meet poems on this evening, music from the street meets staves, accordion and Bağlama meet impure rhymes. An evening for those who have just come and have always been there.

Derya Atakan & Irena Weber, vocals
Marko Dinić & Lütfiye Güzel, poetry
Derya Yıldırım, Saz/Bağlama
Djordje Davidović, accordion

Final Cut, April 20, 2022, Karlstorbahnhof Heidelberg

When we say tradition, we also say archive. And when we say archive, we say pop culture. With its techniques of sampling and scratching, referencing and citing, cut-up and mixing, pop culture provides a whole instrument case that will be pulled out of the hobby cellar on this evening. An experiment in which you yourself cannot yet say exactly how it will turn out.

Sophia Burgos, vocals
Daniel Gerzenberg, piano
Jan Kuhlbrodt, poetry
Simon Stockhausen, sound design, composition, music