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The Comedian
Harmonists were a German singing sensation in the 1920s and 30s.
Best known for their close harmony delivered with humor and style,
the elegant sextet-five vocalists and a pianist-presented music
ranging from folk songs to sentimental hits and novelty tunes. Due
to the changing political climate in Germany in the early '30s,
their career was cut short. Their songs-most by Jewish composers-were
criticized by the Nazis, and the Jewish members of the group were
forbidden to perform. They gave their last concert together in Munich
on March 25, 1934. In 1994, director Martin Woelffer and music arranger
Franz Wittenbrink developed a musical
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The
Berlin Comedian Harmonists
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based on the career
of the original Comedian Harmonists, called Veronika der Lenz ist
da, die Comedian Harmonists. The play premiered on December 19, 1997,
at the Komödie am Kurfürstendamm in Berlin and has since played over
400 performances throughout Germany. From the hundreds of actors and
singers who auditioned for the play came the new sextet, THE BERLIN
COMEDIAN HARMONISTS. This new group has gone on to perform concerts
in Berlin, Hamburg, Frankfurt, Austria and Switzerland, and represented
Germany at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney, Australia, performing
two concerts in the German Pavilion. They have produced a CD and a
video tape of their live concert at the Schiller Theatre in Berlin,
which was also broadcast over German national television. The Berlin
Comedian Harmonists are: Holger Off (1st tenor), Olaf Drauschke (1st
baritone), Marko Woytowicz (2nd tenor), Philipp Seibert (2nd baritone),
Tilmann Rönnebeck (bass), Franz Wittenbrink (piano).
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GAYLE TUFTS
was born in Brockton, Massachusetts in 1960. She received her education
at New York University's Experimental Theater Wing, where she studied
acting, voice, and dance. She spent 13 years in New York City, working
with a variety of artists, as well as presenting her own work. Tufts
performed and toured with choreographer Yoshiko Chuma and her company
The School Of Hard Knocks, and also worked with directors Anne Bogart
and David Gordon, playwrights Nicky Silver and Ain Gordon, and composer
Phillip Glass. In 1990, she relocated to Berlin, Germany, where she
has established herself as an entertainer, author, stand-up comedian,
and songwriter. She has written and produced her own sold-out shows,
and has appeared on nationwide television and radio. By presenting
her work in "Dinglish," a mix of German and English, she has broken
through the language barrier. Her shows Absolutely Unterwegs, A Foreign
Affair, The Big Show, and Miss Amerika are based on her own experiences
and observations of everyday life as an "Auslaenderin" (foreigner)
in Berlin. With her accompanist and songwriting partner, composer
Rainer Bielfeldt (who joins her this evening), she has released three
CDs, Absolutely Unterwegs (Live) and Dictionary Of Delight (both on
the Bfel label) and Big Show (Megaphone). The two have also created
music for dance pieces from the Komische Oper Berlin and the Rotterdam
Dance Group (Holland). Tufts' book Absolutely Unterwegs: An American
in Berlin was published in 1998, the same year she received the Berlin
Critics' Prize for her contribution to the city's cultural landscape.
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MAX RAABE's
singing career began in a children's choir in a boarding school in
East Westphalia. He moved to Berlin in 1984, where he had several
non-musical jobs, but also sang on small stages to finance his singing
lessons. He studied opera at the University of Arts in Berlin for
seven years, and specialized in baritone. Max Raabe has appeared in
the Berliner cult production "Im Weißen Rössl," in the German movie
"Der bewegte Mann," and in the television movie, "Charley's Aunt."
Although he has performed three concerts at the Berliner Philharmonia,
in which he sang in "Carmina Burana," Max Raabe has turned away from
the classical music he studied at the university to devote himself
to the dance and film music of the 1920s and 30s. In 1986, he co-founded
the Palast Orchestra to interpet original arrangements of this music.
As lead singer for the group, Mr. Raabe has a vast repertoire of 20s
and 30s music, but has also begun composing his own songs. He wrote
the tango, "Kein Schwein ruft mich an" (Why does no one call?), in
1992, originally just as a gag. But it turned out to be THE song to
put on your answering machine, and one big mobile phone manufacturer
even built the melody into their phones. They have several CD's, including
Episode 1, Men are Worth Loving, Music Maestro, Please, and Charming
Weill - Dance Band Arrangements, on BMG's RCA Red Seal label. Most
recently, The Palast Orchestra featuring Max Raabe has been touring
all around Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Holland, and has just
returned from Riga, Latvia. Raabe is accompanied by Christoph Israel
on piano. |
