Musical Belongings IV

The lautten compagney BERLIN under the direction of Wolfgang Katschner is one of the most renowned early music orchestras. In the 39 years since its founding in 1984, it has delighted music lovers all over the world. In autumn 2019, it was awarded the OPUS Klassik as Ensemble of the Year. It sets unique musical accents with concerts, opera performances and crossover projects. The ensemble is one of the few independent producers of music theatre projects in Germany. For its unusual and innovative programmes, it is appreciated by audiences as well as national and international critics. In addition to its performances in Berlin, the lautten compagney tours Germany, Europe and the world with about 100 concerts a year. The last major non-European tours took them to ten cities in China in 2019 and to Bogotá in Colombia in autumn 2021. The lautten compagney recently performed the acclaimed premiere of Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo” at the Semperoper in Dresden, the first guest ensemble to do so in the opera house’s recent history.

The lautten compagney cultivates musical traditions as an important part of its programme spectrum with great repertoire works. Wolfgang Katschner and his ensemble are not only curious about music, but also about new ways of presenting it in concert. The lautten compagney has found its own individual platform for experimentation with the :lounge format, among others. Here it demonstrates that early music and contemporary music can indeed be combined. In the :lounge, live sampling and sounds enrich the timbres of the baroque instruments and offer space for surprising improvisations. When old works are inspired by new ideas in this way, musical boundaries disappear.

lautten compagney BERLIN

lautten compagney BERLIN – YouTube

A lutenist by training, Wolfgang Katschner founded the lautten compagney BERLIN together with Hans-Werner Apel in 1984, the centrepiece of his multifaceted work as a musician, organiser and researcher in the sound worlds of “early music”.

On CDs, Wolfgang Katschner and his ensemble present themselves as border crossers; alongside world premiere recordings of operas such as “Didone abbandonata” are unusual combinations of composers: Philipp Glass and Tarquinio Merula (“Timeless”), Heinrich Schütz and Friedrich Hollaender (“War & Peace”) and Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Astor Piazzolla (“Misterio”). Each of these programmes stands for the conviction that “early” music is just as modern as music written later and, once one steps out of one’s self-imposed isolation as a musician of “early” music, can be combined with modern repertoire in an extremely profitable way for musicians and audiences alike.

For some years now, Wolfgang Katschner has also been successfully appearing as a guest conductor at German opera houses. In 2012-2016 he was musical director of the Winter in Schwetzingen; after guest appearances in Bonn (Handel’s “Rinaldo” and “Giulio Cesare”) and Oldenburg (Hasse’s “Siroe”), he was responsible for several opera productions at the Nuremberg State Theatre: “Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria”, “Serse”, “La Calisto” and “Bajazet”. Most recently, Katschner conducted Monteverdi’s “L’Orfeo” at the Semperoper Dresden.

Wolfgang Katschner is also increasingly involved in the training of young artists. He was a guest professor at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin, at the Sing-Fest in Hong Kong, artist in residence at BarockVokal in Mainz and worked with singers at the Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Weimar in 2018 and 2019.

Christian Filips is a poet, music dramaturge, director and translator. He studied philosophy, literature and musicology in Vienna and Berlin. Since 2006 he has been working as a freelance author, director and music dramaturge for the Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz, for the lautten compagney BERLIN and for the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin, among others. As a music dramaturge, he specializes in hybrid formats combining early and contemporary music, literature, performance and action art. As a theater maker, he has developed immersive productions for urban space together with partners in Mumbai and Nairobi. As a translator, he collaborated with the Arab-German collective WIESE (Wie es ist) / مرج (for Hamburger Bahnhof, among others). Filips is currently working with poets Logan February (Nigeria) and Lionel Fogarty (Australia) on the project POESIE DEKOLONIE with Engeler Verlag. The first volume published was “Mental Voodoo: Gedichte“ by Logan February. In April 2023 he curated the festival for world literature POETICA 8 at the University of Cologne. In August 2023, he received the Erlangen Literature Prize for Poetry in Translation. Most recently, the poetry collection Im Traum die Auskunft sagt: Hier! Selected poems 1996-2022 was published by Engeler Verlag.

Born in 1954 in Dangriga, Stann Creek District, Belize, Pen Cayetano is a painter, singer, songwriter, percussionist, guitarist, the leading cultural revivalist and ambassador for the Garinagu (Name of Garifuna in plural). His favorite medium is of oil on canvas with genres of modern art and contemporary realism. Pen Cayetano is mostly inspired by his Garifuna heritage and his surroundings. His task is to conserve the culture and give a consciousness to the people and the youth.

From 1990 to 2009 Pen Cayetano has lived with his family in Germany, where he had a studio and a busy schedule of international art exhibitions, workshops and performances. He has become one of Belize’s foremost cultural ambassadors. His art is represented in several museums and public collections.

He and his German wife, Ingrid, returned to Dangriga in July 2009 and they opened the Pen Cayetano Studio Gallery in Dangriga. Cayetano has three children (Malí, Beni and Ibo).

He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 2013 and he also received numerous awards by the Government of Belize for example:

2022 George Gabb Award for Visual Arts

2020 Artist Emeritus Award

2018 Meritorious Service Award

Music

Pen Cayetano is regarded as the “King” of Punta Rock music. His creation was a way to revive and preserve Garifuna music amongst the younger generation. Pen Cayetano and the Turtle Shell Band introduced this new genre to the world in 1980, at his studio on 5 Moho Road, in Dangriga. Pen fused traditional Garifuna instrumentation including the Garifuna drums, rattles, with turtle shells and an electric guitar.

According to anthropologist Joseph O. Palacio, “Pen used his deep musical talent to retain traditional Garifuna rhythm but to hasten the tempo slightly using the variegated sounds emanating from turtle shells. This marked the birth of Punta Rock. The older folk could continue with the rhythm. At the same time, the youth could also enjoy the stepped-up rocklike beat coming through electronic amplification.”

His legacy, however, lies in his lyrics, which gave the political, social and economic issues of the Belizean Garifuna people a global platform, and along the way inspired a new generation to apply their talents to their own ancestral forms and unique concerns.

His Punta Rock is a force in the process of developing cultural awareness and strengthening national identity for all ethnic groups in the nation of Belize.

www.cayetanos.com

Desiree Diego was born in Dangriga town in the south of Belize. She is a talented singer, composer, and prominent member of The Garifuna Collective, a celebrated music group known for preserving and promoting the Garifuna culture and music.

Diego’s powerful vocals and dynamic performances have earned her recognition and respect in the music community. Her work with the Garifuna Collective contributes to the vibrant and rhythmic sounds that define Garifuna music, blending traditional rhythms with contemporary influences.

Diego is also known throughout Garifuna communities in Belize as a Dugu ceremonial singer. She was born and raised in Dangriga and started singing at the age of 13 in the temple. Her parents sang a lot at home.

Traditional Garifuna music has been passed on by elders to younger musicians as oral literature for centuries. Music was taught during working or just having a good time. It was easier to learn that way than to put it down with pen and paper.

Diego is also the lead singer of the Wageirale Drummers from Dangriga.

In 2023 she won in the Belize Garifuna Song Competition the Single Genre Song of the Year Award with the song Gimugau and she received the Ambassador of Culture and Music Award by the President of the Garifuna International Indigenous Film Festival in the USA.

She has performed in more than 20 countries and recorded on several award-winning albums such as Watina, Umalali, Ayo, and Aban with the Garifuna Collective.

https://www.facebook.com/desiree.diego.798/

https://www.garifunacollective.com/

When most children were learning their ABCs, Kenrick “Luvlace” Lewis was focused on learning how to play the Garifuna drums at the age of four in Hopkins Village, Belize. He later took interest to learn

other instruments such as the keyboard, bass guitar, turtle shells, maracas, and drum set. At the age of 12 Luvlace joined a local band, “Hopkins Culture Boys” where he played the bass guitar and began singing backup for various artists. After the band broke up, Luvlace turned his focus to school, but didn’t give up music as he played drums after classes to earn his own money at the Lebeha Drumming Center in Hopkins Village.

Soon, another band, “Yugadan Boys” sprung up in Hopkins where Luvlace was one of its core members

and by this time, he was venturing into writing his own songs. Simultaneously, he was working on his first single, “Feelings” which was released in 2010 followed by the video featured on YouTube. He decided he was not going to stop there so he began working on his first album, “Waweiyasu” which took him 5 years to complete.

In 2016, Luvlace travelled to Playa Del Carmen with an Allstar Garifuna band featuring Sheldon Petillo and Al Obando of the Garifuna Collective. They opened for the original Wailers of Bob Marley and the Wailers at the World Music Festival. In February 2017, being a member of Project Inebesei, a Garifuna preservation group, he took part in the Tribal Gathering in Panama City playing drums, giving drumming lessons and lectures. Later in June of that year the group journeyed to Astana, Kazakhstan to perform at Astana World Expo 2017.

He also entered the first annual Garifuna Song Competition in Belize where he won 1st place with categories such as: Song of the Year and Budding Artist of the Year. On Christmas Day of 2017, family, friends, fans and other Belizean artists were out in numbers to support the release of the much-anticipated album, “Nuweiyasu” (My Journey). Luvlace and all featured artists were accompanied by his current band, “The Paranda Blues.” The band made up of all family, Bolo, Big Bill, Japhet and Warren, has been together from childhood sharing their talents and preserving and promoting the Garifuna culture through music. Their goal is to network with international organizations to increase global visibility of Garifuna Music.

He was later giving the opportunity to become a member of the Garifuna Collective, following in the footsteps and continuing the legacy of Andy Palacio and the Garifuna people of Belize. He started out as a fill in and later went on to become the lead singer of the band. He has travel to places as the lead singer such as, Dubai, Australia, New Zealand, Europe and all over the United States. He continues to strive for excellence curving his craft and influencing younger singers and musicians to never give up on what they love, because when it is their turn, you should always be prepare to take up the task. Garifuna preservation is the main and very must importantly work for him and all Garifuna decent! He is correctly working on a new album called, “Garifuna Soul” with 6 tracks in Garifuna which is schedule to be release this year 2024.

Denmark Flores was born November 21,1977 in beautiful Dangriga. He currently works at the National Institute of Culture and History, NICH, as the Cultural Liaison Officer under the Institute of Creative Arts, ICA (1 of the 4 branches of NICH).

Growing up in Dangriga town, he was always fond of people playing the Garifuna drums and hence the interest in developing the art. His first time playing the Garifuna drum was the Segunda drum (second drum) in November of 1993 at his high school cultural day assembly.  One year later, in November of 1994 at the Belize city Miss Garifuna pageant he got his first opportunity to play the lead drum, primero (first drum).

As a child his passion was playing football, but in 1996, he had some financial struggles, and had to leave school. Recognizing his ability to play the drums, he used his talent to pay his way back to school and upon graduating he made the decision to put drumming first and football second.

Over the years, this talented musician has been a member of the Sound City Band, the Punta Rebels band, the Belize National Dance Company (drummer), the Ugundani Dance Company (drummer), the Galen Eagles band and the Garifuna Collective.

His 25 plus years in the career as a drummer has blessed him as a young Belizean to travel to more than 35 countries in 5 of the 7 continents.

As a member of the Garifuna Collective, band, he accompanied the group in being the first Belizean music group to perform at festivals in places like, Malaysia, Serbia, Japan, and New Zealand. As a drummer for the Belize Dance company, he was a part of the first dance group from Belize to perform in France, Spain, Germany and Italy.

One of his most rewarding moments came at WOMEX 2018 in Las Palmas, Spain where he played what was his best performance in over 10 years.

Presently, his goal is to continue building on what he has learned over the past 30 years, and to become a better version of who he is today.

Born in 1956 in Ahrweiler, Germany, Ingrid Cayetano nee Reuter studied art from 1976 to 1980 at the University of Applied Sciences in Cologne, Germany.

Since 1978 she has been doing performances and exhibitions in Germany, Europe and abroad. Early 1981, she visited Belize and met her husband legendary artist and musician Pen Cayetano.

Ingrid Cayetano has a unique method of presenting ideas in her needle paintings. She experiments and combines old techniques with new materials. The art is seeing old paintings in a new life-form, modelling portraits and figures with many threads and colours. The fabrics tell a story and are ´painted´ with thread and needle.

Besides being an artist, Ingrid Cayetano is the coordinator, manager, mother of three and is also a member of the family band “The Cayetanos”. Along with her son Ibo she wrote the children book stories “We are free” and “Wanaragua” which were illustrated by her daughter Malí. Designing and decorating clothes is one of her passions.

Under her brand ‘Ms Ingrid’ she offers various homemade food products. She also produced the Dangriga map with her son Beni who did the design.

In 2008 she and husband Pen Cayetano opened the Studio Gallery where they offer events, tours, workshops for art and music.

Since 2009 she is the curator for LUK Ya – Women in Art event at their Gallery for female artist from the region.

She shares her art with younger children and adults who attend her training classes and presents her artwork in exhibitions all over Belize and abroad.

Aminata Lucia Yade Toscano was born in 2003 in Berlin. Aminata and her twin brother have German-Italian and Senegalese roots. They grew up with their mother, a former dancer and physiotherapist. This is why Aminata’s first mother tongue is Italian and her second mother tongue is German. Aminata is fluent in English and also speaks Spanish and French quite well. Aminata started singing and dancing in a choir at the age of four and has been performing regularly ever since. She took singing lessons at the age of 10 and has been a member of the Sing Akademie zu Berlin since 2012, with whom Aminata has won many prizes. Aminata still sings today and intensively practises the Brazilian martial art of capoeira. Aminata gained her first experience in film while she was still at school. In 2021, she took on a small role in David Wnendt’s feature film Sun and Concrete. A bigger challenge followed in 2022: Aminata was given the role of Palmyra Monty in the Hunger Games adaptation of Francis Lawrence’s The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes. After successfully completing her A-levels in summer 2022, she pursued intensive coaching and acting lessons, and took on the role of Ava in the Disney+ series Pauline. Aminata has been studying acting at the Hamburg University of Music and Drama since the summer semester of 2024.

Georg A. Bochow is a countertenor who has gained a reputation for his passionate expression and vocal technique. He is considered a specialist in baroque gestures and is pursuing trainings in Meyerhold’s biomechanics. The 2023/24 season brought him to Dresden twice: first as Lucy(us) in Brecht/Weill’s Threepenny Opera at the Staatsschauspielhaus and then as Speranza in Monteverdi’s Orfeo, making his debut at the Dresden Semperoper. He particularly enjoys playing Handel roles on stage, including Eustazio in Rinaldo at the Handel Festival in Halle, the title role of Orlando at the Konstanz Chamber Opera, Oronte in Riccardo Primo at the Ulm Theatre and the title role of Giustino with the lautten compagney Berlin. In past seasons, he appeared as Prince Gogo in Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre at the Mecklenburg State Theatre and as L’umana Fragilità and Pisandro in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno d’Ulisse in patria at the German National Theatre in Weimar. In contemporary music, a particular highlight of 2023 was the world premiere of Rosenstern in Sarah Nemtsov’s OPHELIA at the Saarbrücken State Theatre. He made a guest appearance as Arcivescovo in Dusapin’s opera Perelà at the Lucerne Theatre. His collaboration with Austrian composer Matthias Kranebitter continues after the successful world premiere as Prometheus in Pandora at the Vienna Music Theatre Days in co-productions with the German National Theatre Weimar, with his debut at Wien Modern 2024 in the world premiere of the dance theatre piece ORLANDO.

Christoph Pfaller was born in Leipzig in 1992 and received his first musical training at the St. Thomas’s Boys Choir Leipzig at the age of nine. In this context, he was taught singing by Kammersänger Martin Petzold. He undertook numerous trips with the choir under the direction of Thomaskantor Georg Christoph Biller, both nationally and internationally (including Japan, South Korea and Australia), and participated in several CD recordings and concerts as a boy soloist. In the 2004/2005 season, he took on the role of the first boy in W. A. Mozart’s opera “The Magic Flute” at the Leipzig Opera. Since 2013, he has been studying singing with Professor Christina Wartenberg and Jeanette Favaro-Reuter at the University of Music and Theater Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Leipzig, where he also graduated. Most recently, he could be heard as “Belmonte” in Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s “The Abduction from the Seraglio” or as “Lyonel” in Friedrich von Flotow’s opera “Martha”. This season, Christoph Pfaller will also be making his debut on the opera stage as “Luigi” in Giacomo Puccini’s “Il Tabarro” or as “Fenton” in Otto Nikolai’s “The Merry Wives of Windsor”. The young tenor feels a particularly close connection to oratorio and early music, which has accompanied and shaped him since his earliest childhood. Today, he is in demand as a soloist throughout Germany and beyond, particularly as an evangelist and interpreter of Bach, and regularly works with renowned conductors and musicians such as Hans-Christoph Rademann, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Holger Speck, David Timm, Gewandhaus organist Michael Schönheit, Felix Koch, Adam Viktora, Wolfgang Kat schner, Gotthold Schwarz, Andreas Reize and ensembles such as the St. Thomas Choir Leipzig, the Dresden Philharmonic, the Lautten Compagney Berlin, the Neumeyer Consort, the Vocalensemble Rastatt, the Gaechinger Cantorey Stuttgart, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Ensemble Inégal and the Staatskapelle Halle. Most recently, engagements have taken him to Russia, Italy, Luxembourg, Cuba, Belgium and the USA, among other places. Several CD recordings underline his musical work in recent years. Christoph Pfaller is a scholarship holder and prizewinner of the “Kammeroper Schloss Rheinsberg” 2017.

Raphael Riebesell (*2000) is a baritone born and raised in Berlin. From the age of 6, he was a member of the State and Cathedral Choir Berlin. Under the guidance of Prof. Kai-Uwe Jirka, he gained his first experiences as a choir singer and boy soloist. From 2017 to 2019, he was a young student at the Julius Stern Institute of the University of the Arts Berlin (UdK) studying with Prof. Jochen Großmann and won the 1st prize at the 55th Federal Competition “Jugend musiziert” in the summer of 2018. From 2019 to 2023, he studied at UdK with Beatrice Niehoff and Prof. Elisabeth Werres and spent the winter semester of 2021/22 at the Conservatoire National de Paris in the class of Isabelle Guillaud-Kalvar. Currently, he is continuing his studies in the Master at the University of Music and Performing Arts Munich under the guidance of KS Prof. Christiane Iven. Raphael Riebesell is scholarship holder of the Konrad Adenauer Foundation. In addition to art song and oratorio, the young singer takes interest in ensemble singing. Being a member of the vocal quartet ‘German Gents’ allows him to explore this passion.