The queer summer concert during Berlin Pride-Week
New to Berlin’s Pride Week: the event series “Pride in Concert” begins on July 22 with a moving and top-quality premiere. The musicians of the project "Forget me not" give queer composers an authentic voice in a unique concert. The Orangerie Charlottenburg will be opening its doors for this evening of song to all those who care about diversity and want to discover both well-known and lesser-known composers anew.
The programme features 18 songs by 10 different composers, from Leonard Bernstein to Henriëtte Bosmans and Ethel Smyth to Benjamin Britten and Fryderyk Chopin. Do you hear the songs differently when you know more about the queer life stories of a composer? Absolutely, says singer Tim Stolte, who initiated the project and researched the life stories: “I perceive music completely differently with this knowledge.” A few years ago, in response to a radio feature about Chopin titled ‘Chopin was gay - and no one was supposed to know’, he realized that he himself hadn’t known about Chopin’s homosexuality. Queer biographies hadn’t been addressed during his music studies either.
This marked the beginning of a research journey that has culminated in a moderated evening song recital, offering a new perspective on well-known composers and introducing others to a wider audience for the first time. How difficult is it to research queer life stories? For some of the featured composers, it is clear, because they, like Chopin or Smyth, wrote about it themselves, or like Tchaikovsky, who even composed a personal coming-out song. For others, it remains ambiguous, partly because terms like queer, gay, or lesbian did not exist during their lifetimes – or because they had to hide that aspect of themselves. Nevertheless, queer lives should always be ‘kept in mind’, even in classical music, says Tim Stolte. Or simply listened to closely in this special concert, which offers not only wistful moments but also those full of joie de vivre and humour.
Performers:
Daniel Philipp Witte (tenor), Emma Rothmann (mezzo-soprano), Tim Stolte (bass-baritone), Annalena Hösel (piano), plus a supporting technician to manage video projections of the lyrics.
Host (in German and English):
Nina Süssmilch (presenter, author, L-MAG editor)
Pride in Concert presents:
A concert with the musicians of "Forget me not", July 22, 2025, 8 pm (doors open at 7pm), at the Orangerie at Charlottenburg Palace, Spandauer Damm 22, 14059 Berlin, followed by an audience discussion and get-together with shellac DJ Lars Schwuchow.
Organized by:
Place2be.berlin
Link to NDR’s report on last year’s Forget me not concert at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie
Supported by:
In cooperation with:
