Poetry & Live Music | Peter Wortsman - The Laboratory of Time
Schedule
Mon May 18 2026 at 07:00 pm to 09:00 pm
UTC+02:00Location
Das neue HENNWACK: Antiquariat, Buchhandlung & Café | Berlin, BE
About this Event
DE
Der Dichter Peter Wortsman aus New York liest Gedichte aus seinem Buch The Laboratory of Time and other cut-up poems. Wonach Trompeter-Komponist Paul Brody, Berlin, und Vokalist-Komponist Gunnar Brandt-Sigurdsson, Oldenburg, aus Wortsmans Gedichten entstandene Lieder von ihrem gleichlautend betitelten Album vorspielen. Manchmal klappt ein Aufeinandertreffen einfach. Wortsman erklärt, wie die drei, jeder auf seine eigene Art und Weise, sich im Zusammenspiel sofort in einem besonderen Ausmaß verständigten und daraus ein einmaliges Kunstwerk entstehen konnte.
ENG
The poet Peter Wortsman from New York reads poems from his book The Laboratory of Time and other cut-up poems. Following that, trumpeter-composer Paul Brody from Berlin and vocalist-composer Gunnar Brandt-Sigurdsson from Oldenburg perform songs based on Wortsman’s poems from their album of the same name. Sometimes a collaboration just clicks. Wortsman explains how the three of them, each in their own way, immediately found a special rapport in their interplay, which allowed a unique work of art to emerge.
Event Language: English
Free admission - please reserve a spot in advance
Peter Wortsman
Dubbed a "20th-century Brother Grimm" (Bloomsbury Review) and "a delinquent Hans Christian Andersen" (by playwright Mark O'Donnell), Peter Wortsman is the author of works of fiction and nonfiction, stage plays and poetry. He is also a translator from the German and a travel writer. Wortsman was the recipient of the 1985 Beard's Fund Short Story Award and the 2008 Gertje Potash-Suhr Prose Prize of the Society for Contemporary American Literature in German. A former Fellow of the Fulbright (1973) and Thomas J. Watson (1974) Foundations, he was the Holtzbrinck Fellow at the American Academy in Berlin in Spring 2010. His travel writing was selected five years in a row, 2008-2012, and again in 2016, for inclusion in Travelers’ Tales’ The Best Travel Writing. His travel memoir Ghost Dance in Berlin, A Rhapsody in Gray was short-listed for a 2013 Eric Hoffer Book Award and won a 2014 Independent Publishers Book Award (IPPY). His novel Cold Earth Wanderers was a finalist in Foreword Reviews' 2015 INDIEFAB Best Fantasy/Science Fiction Book Competition. His stage plays have been performed in the U.S. and in Germany. He lives in New York City.
Paul Brody
A nominee for the Faust Theater Prize, Paul Brody was born in California, USA, and received his musical training at the New England Conservatory of Music in Boston. Brody works regularly as a sound artist, composer, and trumpeter at venues including the Théâtre de Vidy in Lausanne, the Münchner Kammerspiele, the Berliner Schaubühne, the MC93 in Paris, the New York Harlem Opera, and the Burgtheater in Vienna. He has a close working relationship with music producer John Zorn. His album “Hinter allen Worten,” featuring artists such as Clueso, Meret Becker, and Jelena Kulijic, was included on the shortlist for the German Record Critics’ Award. Paul Brody was nominated for the Europe Broadcasting Festival Award and the International Feature Festival Vienna Award for his work as a sound artist. His sound art works have been featured on WDR, Deutschlandradio, at the Jewish Museum Berlin, the MuseumsQuartier Vienna, and at Transmediale Berlin.
Gunnar Brandt-Sigurdsson
Gunnar Brandt-Sigurdsson brings together vocal expression and meticulously crafted recordings in his artistic work. As a tenor, countertenor and singer of extended vocal techniques, he has been performing world premieres of contemporary music on international stages since 2001 - including the Holland Festival, the Edinburgh Festival, the music Festival Istanbul and the Ruhrtriennale. In 2017, he developed the musical arrangement for The Art of Fugue for the BalletCompagnie Oldenburg, followed in 2019 by his original composition Interaction, both created in collaboration with choreographer Antoine Jully. His compositions and sound designs are defined by the blending of multi-layered vocal recordings with electronic sound textures and song-like structures. Brandt-Sigurdsson studied vocal pedagogy at the College of Music Bremen, Germany.
Where is it happening?
Das neue HENNWACK: Antiquariat, Buchhandlung & Café, Feuerbachstraße 26, Berlin, GermanyEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
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