In comparison to the other trip days, today was the earliest ending yet, which is great because it allows me to publish this blog sooner and get to bed at a decent hour tonight! Our first scheduled obligation today was a combined rehearsal with the orchestra for the Mendelssohn Concert tomorrow at 1:00 PM, so we had the morning to ourselves. After breakfast, a few of us headed out to a spot I’d wanted to check out the entire trip: Berlin’s Tempelhofer Feld.
The Tempelhofer Feld was an airport in Berlin that was built in the 1920s, but after it closed in 2008, Berlin decided to convert it into a public park. The space is massive, measuring in at 386 hectares (or in an American unit, about 954 acres). The park is extremely popular with cyclists and runners due to the massive circular path and long leftover tarmac to exercise on, but I was aware of it for a different reason. In 2022, the Rome Prize-winning composer Lisa Bielawa was named an inaugural member of the Louisville Orchestra Creator Corps. The program aims to house composers in Louisville for a year to write for the orchestra and civically engage with the Louisville community, and luckily for me, part of Lisa’s duties in Louisville included teaching masterclasses to composers at UofL. I could write endlessly about Lisa’s musical successes, but one of her most unique projects is a series of pieces called “Broadcasts,” which are massive works designed for public spaces and tons of performers. The idea is that the musicians perform and move in a large enough public space that the audience can freely move through the area and have a different experience of the piece based on their movement during the performance of the work. Lisa’s first Broadcast premiered at the Tempelhofer Feld in 2013, and she created another Broadcast at Waterfront Park in Louisville in 2023, so it was wonderful to see where her project began.
We did not have the time to cover the entire park, but we walked as far as we could to take in the views. The vastness is overwhelming, and the park has several unique areas such as designated bird habitats, model cars on display, and even an area for wind sports on one section of the tarmac. After we left Tempelhofer Feld, we headed closer to our rehearsal space location and grabbed coffee and quiches at a stellar Italian Coffeehouse called Giro d’Espresso in the Charlottenburg area.
Our rehearsal today was a long one, stretching from 1:00-4:45, but due to the caliber of the musicians and music alike, it went by faster than I anticipated. We rehearsed with the orchestra for tomorrow’s concert at the Philharmonie (see details in yesterday’s post), and finally hearing the works as they were fully intended was breathtaking! The rehearsal space was extremely reverberant, so watching the conductors especially close and not falling prey to the echo delays enveloping the room was imperative. During a 20-minute break in the rehearsal, the Junges Ensemble informed us they had brought in food for us to enjoy! Taking time out of their lives to prepare food for us potluck style means more than they realize, and we were all grateful for their kindness.
Following the rehearsal, I headed to an Evening Vigil Mass at St.-Antonius-Kirche closer to our hotel. I was sure I would be completely lost in the service, but due to the amount of liturgical German music I’ve sung over the years, I actually could make out most of the liturgy (though the homily was a different story)! I sightread the hymns and chants in German well, and I think it might’ve been my first time visiting somewhere in Berlin where they didn’t realize I was American! In a rather humorous dichotomy between German and American culture, during the passing of the peace, the parishioners just looked at each other and smiled instead of making any physical contact or saying a single word (lucky for me because I had no idea how to say “peace be with you” in German).
After the Mass was over, I headed back to the hotel, grabbed some currywurst from the kebab stand near our hotel, and settled in for my first quiet evening on this trip, which also marks the first time I will have finished this blog post before midnight! We have a busy rehearsal schedule and the Mendelssohn concert tomorrow, so I’m looking forward to getting some extra rest in tonight before tomorrow’s activities! We depart Berlin for Leipzig on Monday, and while I can’t wait to see Bach’s primary hometown, I do lament that I don’t have even more time in Berlin. I feel that I’ve barely begun to explore the city, and I’ll have to come back sometime in the future. 2029 will mark the 40th anniversary of the reunification of Germany, so maybe I can find a reason to return to Berlin then!
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