Mahler Forum

for Music
and Society

für Musik
und Gesellschaft

A Room
of One’s Own

1.–2. July2022

The second Mahler Forum for Music and Society, titled A Room of One's Own – Creativity and Space took place from July 1-2, 2022 and explored the time-honoured cultural technique of the artist retreat. This year’s theme of creativity and inspiration, particularly in spaces of retreat, was conceptually rooted in Gustav Mahler's Composing Hut in Maiernigg at the Wörthersee.

Follow the links to view the recordings of the two days:

Friday, July 1, 7.00 pm

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Saturday, July 2, 11.00 am

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Saturday, July 2, 5.00 pm

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Picture Gallery of the second Mahler Forum

Reading by Verena Altenberger

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Lecture Performance by Elisabeth von Samsonow and Michael Klaar

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World premiere of wow by Doina-Cezara Procopciuc

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Performance of Die Seele des Ortes by students of GMPU

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World premiere of DOORWAYS 9 by Maja Osojnik

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For two days, visitors were invited to participate in the festival's democratic and open think space, where, together with the panellists, artists and musicians, we traced, discussed and envisioned the theme of creativity and space from various perspectives. Informed by music and visual art, literature and philosophy as well as the natural sciences – this transdisciplinary approach helps us in our endeavour to create new versions of future social practices.

Various sources of inspiration served as our starting point, such as Henry David Thoreau's momentous book from 1854, Walden, or Life in the Woods, which made him the forefather of civil disobedience and an icon of the ecological movement. Or Virginia Woolf and her ground-breaking essay A Room of One’s Own from 1929, which was already highly acclaimed at the time and remains one of the most widely received texts of the women’s movement to this day.
Together, they formed the basis of our exploration of creativity, inspiration and the longing for autonomy that comes with it. How can we apply these energies to current social conditions?

The music programme curated by musicologist and Mahler expert Morten Solvik was realized im cooperation with the Orchestra for the Earth, mezzo-sopranist Gabriella Noble as well as teachers and students form The Gustav Mahler Private University for Music.

The art installations for Exposition by Dorit Margreiter and Maja Osojnik, curated by Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein and section.a with the title Exposition, were developed in resonance with the site of Mahler’s Composing Hut Maiernigg. The artists created a mapping of architecture, sound, drawing and visual markings which invites visitors to become co-actors as they allow movement in what was believed to be firm knowledge. The presentation of the interventions, an artist talk and the premiere of the silent sound installation took place at the Mahler Forum on July 2, 2022 in cooperation with the federal state of Carinthia’s Year of Visual Art 2022 → CLOSE(D) FUTURE, at the Composing Hut Maiernigg. The installations can be seen, walked through and experienced as an onsite installation until October 30, 2022.

Friday, July 1, 2022, 7.00 pm,
Konzerthaus Klagenfurt, Mozartsaal

Mießtaler Str. 8, 9020 Klagenfurt

Welcoming Remarks

Roland Streiner, Rector of the Gustav Mahler Private University for Music
Christian Scheider, Mayor of the City of Klagenfurt
Peter Kaiser, Governor and Secretary for Culture of the State of Carinthia

Retreating into the World – A Room of One’s Own

Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein

Gustav Mahler, Alma Mahler and (the Freedom of) Creative Space

Morten Solvik

Fünf Lieder – Five Songs, Alma Mahler (published 1910)

1. Die stille Stadt
2. In meines Vaters Garten

Gabriella Noble, mezzo-soprano
John Warner and soloists of the Orchestra for the Earth

Reading

A Room of One’s Own, Virginia Woolf
Verena Altenberger

World premiere wow (want of wit) by Doina-Cezara Procopciuc

wow (want of wit) for mezzo-soprano and ensemble
based on texts from Virginia Woolf’s A Room of One’s Own
Gabriella Noble, mezzo-soprano
John Warner and soloists of the Orchestra for the Earth and students of the Gustav Mahler Private University for Music

On wow (want of wit)

Morten Solvik in conversation with Doina-Cezara Procopciuc

Repeated performance of wow (want of wit)


--- BREAK ---

Creative Spaces – Composing as a Process

Hakan Ulus, Gustav Mahler Private University for Music

Studio Talk

Composers and Gustav Mahler in Toblach
Stefan Hakenberg, Fabian Dudek and Eva Kuhn

Round table

Verena Altenberger, Stefan Hakenberg, Doina-Cezara Procopciuc, Morten Solvik and Hakan Ulus

Fünf Lieder – Five Songs, Alma Mahler (published 1910)

3. Laue Sommernacht
4. Bei dir ist es traut
5. Ich wandle unter Blumen

Gabriella Noble, mezzo-soprano
John Warner and soloists of the Orchestra for the Earth

Host: Christine Scheucher

Reading: A Room of One's Own, Virginia Woolf
Retranslated from English and with an afterword by Antje Rávik Strubel.
© 2019 by Kampa Verlag AG, Zurich

Saturday, July 2, 2022, 11.00 am
Komponierhäuschen Maiernigg – Composing Hut Maiernigg

Gustav-Mahler-Weg 10, 9073 Maiernigg

The Unmistakable Sound of Silence

on Exposition, an artistic intervention by Dorit Margreiter and Maja Osojnik
Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein

The Composing Hut: Mahler's Creative Space

Morten Solvik

World premiere DOORWAYS 9 / A sound postcard to an abandoned home

Composition by Maja Osojnik for soloists of the Orchestra for the Earth

Artist Talk

Dorit Margreiter, Maja Osojnik and Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein

Exposition by Dorit Margreiter and Maja Osojnik is on view from July 2 – October 30, 2022


Saturday, July 2, 2022, 5.00 pm
Konzerthaus Klagenfurt, Mozartsaal

Mießtaler Str. 8, 9020 Klagenfurt

Welcoming Remarks

Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein

A Musical-Scenic Exploration

Die Seele des Ortes Ortes – The Soul of Place
Students of the Gustav Mahler Private University for Music
directed by Dieter Bucher

Man is but a Worm – A Biological Perspective on Rhythms, Free Space and Creativity

Kristin Tessmar-Raible

Round table

Bernarda Fink and Kristin Tessmar-Raible

--- BREAK ---

Two Lieder, Gustav Mahler

Wer hat dies Liedlein erdacht? (Des Knaben Wunderhorn, 1892)
Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder (Friedrich Rückert, 1901)
Gabriella Noble, mezzo-soprano
John Warner and soloists of the Orchestra for the Earth

Lecture Performance

Hybrid Interior Divertimento
Elisabeth von Samsonow and Michael Klaar

Round table

Bernarda Fink, Dorit Margreiter, Morten Solvik, Elisabeth von Samsonow, Kristin Tessmar-Raible and Felicitas Thun-Hohenstein

Musical Finale

Gustav Mahler, Liebst Du um Schönheit, (Friedrich Rückert, 1902)
Gabriella Noble, mezzo-soprano
John Warner and soloists of the Orchestra for the Earth


Host: Christine Scheucher