FULL OF ENERGY!

Attention trumpet fans! To mark his 25th anniversary as professor of trumpet at the HfMT, Matthias Höfs has gathered an ensemble of current and former students around him. Together they will perform in the Small Hall of the Elbphilharmonie.

Dear Matthias, wow! How do you feel?
"It's a wonderful feeling of connection with my class, which I've had the privilege of looking after here in Hamburg since 2000! There is now an international network of many former students who now hold major professorships themselves or play in renowned orchestras and as soloists. I really enjoy making music together, like at our upcoming concert on April 1 in the Elbphilharmonie. The great motivation of my students is infectious. We have documented this "good spirit" with 3 CD recordings. The energy and atmosphere of our work together is spreading and continues to attract highly talented young trumpeters from all over the world to the Alster."

There will be music from baroque to jazz and there are even a few tickets left
The Trumpet Shall Sound on April 1 in the Small Hall of the Elbphilharmonie

Some of our students were given the fantastic opportunity to take part in a demanding and highly professional production at the Hamburg State Opera.

Under the direction of Elisabeth Stöppler (HfMT alumna), Michael's Journey will be performed at opera stabile as a reduced version of Act 2 of the opera Donnerstag aus Licht by Karlheinz Stockhausen.
The production at opera stabile allows both children and adults sensory access to this central work of the recent musical avant-garde. In contrast to other parts of Licht, Michael's Journey is a purely instrumental piece. Michael, played by a solo trumpet, and his crew (made up of HfMT students) travel around the world, into the infinite expanses of space and into rarely heard worlds of sound.

The premiere is on April 11 and the tickets for the family events are unfortunately already fully booked. However, there are still a few opportunities to register as a school class for the school performances.
Michaels Reise an der opera stabile from 11 April

In the upcoming symphony concert, the university orchestra will perform a new work by Prof. Gordon Kampe under the direction of Prof. Ulrich Windfuhr. Prof. Michaela Kaune will perform the solo vocal part.

Gordon Kampe is delighted: "Colleagues often meet on the go at a university. Coffee, brief information - and sometimes long meetings. Commissions. Credit points... It all has to happen. And sometimes we also have to meet as musicians. That's why I can't be happy enough that Michaela Kaune has embarked on the adventure of a world premiere, whose voice blew me away last year (in an Ariadne performance) and for whom it gave me great pleasure to write".

Being placed in the concert as a kind of "support act" for Mahler's overwhelming 6th Symphony is not easy, however: "because there is this "damn" hammer. This iconic hammer, which I would love to use if it were ever there... The hammer is the forbidden fruit in the paradise of instrumental possibilities. Mahler constantly shows where the hammer hangs. So hammering doesn't help, I screwed," writes Kampe in our program booklet. The result is three love songs for voice and orchestra. And we are looking forward to the combination of both works.

Concerts with the symphony orchestra of the HfMT on April 13 and 14

With the Feminale, that certain thermal energy moves back into our house. First of all, the walls are usually covered with the festival colors and programs so that nobody misses it and then we are once again amazed at the inexhaustible inventiveness of the "Feminalists" for what is now the 4th edition of the Feminale Festival.

They do educational work, are persistent and admonishing, but never in a bad mood. They constantly conjure up new programs, ideas, cross-references and formats and ensure a few days of exclusive female music literature. We come across tried and tested and new things. New this year, for example, is a composition commission for Composer in Residence Lucie Spedicato:

"As a young composer, it is of course a great honor for me to be this year's Composer in Residence at the Feminale. I have been a regular harpist at the festival since its inception and I very much appreciate the trust of the Feminale team.
My piece for alto flute, oboe, clarinet, horn, harp and double bass is inspired by the eruption of an Icelandic volcano in 1783. I was particularly fascinated by the appearance of the resulting haze, which spread far across Europe and whose source was unknown to Europeans at the time. My piece aims to set the characteristics of this mysterious haze to music: from its physical appearance, its density and its movements to its effects on nature, such as the cloudy color of sunlight."

In response to the question "Why is it important that we have more works that take a feminist view of the world?", Tobias Kratzer (Director of the Hamburg State Opera) said in a recent interview: "There are simply enough operas by men and for centuries only men have written operas, so I believe that the more operas we have with a feminist or female perspective, the better, in order to compensate at least a little for this incredible imbalance in the canon."

With this in mind: Thank you for your work and Go for Feminale 2026 from April 17 to 30

Another event focuses on a political theme: the artistic-scientific symposium Affirmative Sustainability asks how renunciation and resource conservation in the arts can be experienced as an affirmation and creative opportunity. The focus is on ecological and social aspects of sustainability, which are reflected in artistic practices and call for possible alternative futures.
The focus here will be on the power of cultural imagination: What images of the future can we create and how do our actions influence the register of artistic utopias? Sustainability can be thought of as a productive practice that has its own aesthetic and social qualities.

So can less be more?
Can we learn positively connoted renunciation?
Can we hope for a manual for profitable frugality?

In addition to discussions with experts, we can look forward to a musical lunch break and a workshop in the afternoon. It promises to be an exciting day.

Affirmative Sustainability Symposium on April 17 at the Barmbek campus on Wiesendamm

For our dear supporters and those who want to become supporters, we offer a rehearsal visit for the symphony concerts with Kampe and Mahler (see above).
To arrange an appointment, please send an email to hochschulstiftung.supporter@hfmt-hamburg.de
All important information about the supporters can be found here

After the vernissage last weekend, you can still visit the interactive exhibition Moving Sound Pictures by VR and multimedia artist Konstantina Orlandatou.

With the German Musical Instrument Fund, the German Foundation for Musical Life promotes top young musicians. In an annual competition, young musicians compete for the award of one of around 250 predominantly historical and beautiful-sounding string instruments and in the public loan renewal games from April 10 to 12 for the extension of the loan contract for "their" instrument.

In a chamber concert on April 16 as part of the Days of Bohuslav Martinů festival, students of the HfMT will perform works by Bohuslav Martinů as well as Gideon Klein and Pavel Haas - two outstanding Jewish composers from Martinů's circle who fell victim to National Socialist persecution - in cooperation with renowned partners.

In an encounter concert by the Federal Youth Jazz Orchestra (Bujaazo) and the Federal Youth Orchestra (BJO) on April 20 in the JazzHall, the young musicians blur the boundaries between jazz and classical music under the sensitive direction of Jonathan Stockhammer.

In an event organized by the Hamburg Institute for Advanced Study (HIAS) in cooperation with the HfMT, we will hear a song recital entitled Winterreise - Weltreise als globale Neugaltung of Franz Schubert's treasured song cycle on 27 April with an integrated moderation and subsequent panel discussion on the contradictory artistic legacies of European colonialism.

And there is even more to discover in our calendar of events.
Stay tuned - we look forward to seeing you!