"Transforming" - Steinway Prizewinner Concert with Viktor Soos
The Leuphana Concert Lab cordially invites you to a special piano recital with Steinway Prize Winner Viktor Soos! The concert has been jointly conceived by students and the partner artist and illuminates the topic of “transformation” from different perspectives. It will be scientifically accompanied by a research team (project management Prof. Dr. Sigrid Bekmeier-Feuerhahn).
When: January 22, 2025, 7:30 p.m. (Admission starting at 7 p.m.)
Where: Central Building, Auditorium (Universitätsallee 1, 21335 Lüneburg)
To attend the concert, prior registration via e-mail to lea.jakob@leuphana.de is required.
The Mahler Chamber Orchestra (MCO) and Leuphana University Lüneburg will cooperate starting in October 2024 as part of the Leuphana Concert Lab. The specific topic of this cooperation will be the Musikwoche Hitzacker, which the MCO leads as Artistic Director from 2024 to 2028.
Founded in 1997, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra is one of the most renowned chamber orchestras worldwide. As a democratic and globally touring collective, the ensemble also serves as a model for an open society based on dialogue. It is led by its 50 members alongside its Berlin-based management. The MCO regularly explores new horizons with its groundbreaking programs and formats.
Leuphana University Lüneburg is known as a place for inspiring study, transdisciplinary research, ingenuity, personal development, and social commitment. It has received numerous awards for its development as a humanistic, action-oriented, and sustainable university, as well as for its support of startups. A special feature of the university is its interdisciplinary study model.
The Leuphana Concert Lab is a transdisciplinary project that brings together students from all faculties with musicians and partners from academia and the music business. In seminars and workshops, they discuss and work on overarching social issues and challenges. In the current semester, the students are developing concert formats and educational strategies around the topic of “transformation” and applying them in concrete projects in the region.
“We see this cooperation as a great opportunity to network with institutions in the region as part of our artistic direction of Musikwoche Hitzacker, and to exchange ideas with Leuphana students. By involving them in the concept for Musikwoche 2026, we want to increase the relevance of the festival, especially for young people", says Janina Rinck, Development Manager of the MCO.
“For us as a university, the cooperation with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra offers an outstanding opportunity to live transdisciplinarity in teaching and research. The students can work with an exciting artistic partner on current issues, and gain insights into practice. At the same time, students experience a high level of self-efficacy through the concrete implementation of the Musikwoche”, explains Prof. Dr. Sigrid Bekmeier-Feuerhahn, Project Director of the Leuphana Concert Lab.
The 39th edition of Musikwoche Hitzacker, “Bewegte Zeiten”, will take place from February 28 to March 9, 2025. The full program is available here.
In the seminar “Future Concerts for Hitzacker: Project Development with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra”, students develop a concept for a theme day at the Musikwoche Hitzacker together with the artistic director of the MCO. As part of the cooperation, they are looking at how the MCO can address current topics in a festival format and what strategies it can use to interest a younger and heterogeneous audience in such events. The results will be presented to the MCO at the end of the semester and will be incorporated into the planning for the 2026 edition of the festival.
The concert lab with Steinway & Sons is entering its second round! This semester, students from various disciplines will work with pianist Viktor Soos to conceive and realize a public concert evening on the theme of “Transforming”. This is a co-creative process that focuses on transdisciplinary collaboration: students accompany the pianist in the dramaturgical planning, contribute the perspective of their discipline to this and also gain important practical experience in the implementation of the event. The concert will take place on 22.01.2025 in the Libeskindbau.
For the first time, a seminar of the Concert Lab will take place in the Business Administration major! The teaching research project “Immersive Processes” is dedicated to the search for immersive experiences at the interface between management and art. The aim is to make immersive experiences in concerts systematically measurable in order to further develop concert practice artistically and strategically. The findings from the seminar will be applied directly at the Concert Lab in January.