




News
Robert Kahn concerts in Germany
Aug 24, 2019
Enseble EMIGRE (with Friederike Fechner, cello, Jakob Fichert, piano and Norbert Meyn, tenor) gave two sold out and well received concerts in northern Germany on August 22 and 23. They were dedicated to the music of Robert Kahn and hosted by the Hauptmannhaus on the beautiful island of Hiddensee and the new event series Bankdruecken in the hanseatic city of Stralsund.
£900.000 Funding for Royal College of Music Research Project
Aug 2, 2019
It took more than two years to prepare, but the long wait has paid off. The research project 'Music, Migration and Mobility - The Legacy of Migrant Musicians from Nazi Europe in Britain' will run from September 2019 for three years, funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council and lead by Norbert Meyn (RCM, Principle Investigator), Prof. Nils Grosch (Salzburg University) and Prof. Peter Adey, Royal Holloway University of London.
Songs by Prince Albert
Video recordings and lecture, June 2019
On the occasion of the bicentenary of Victoria and Albert's birth and for my lecture at the conference '200 Years of Anglo-German Correspondences' at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London (June 26-28, 2019), I recorded a selection of songs by Prince Albert and Felix Mendelssohn at the RCM studios.
Berlin Concert - Akademie der Künste
March 11, 2019
This concert at the Akademie der Künste Berlin (Hanseatenweg) was dedicated to the music of Robert Kahn (1865-1951) who had been a prominent member of the Akademie before being removed by the Nazis because of his Jewish roots. Twelve London based musicians, among them professors and students from the Royal College of Music and members of Ensemble EMIGRE were involved in this performance. It gave a fairly representative overview of Kahn's sizeable musical output and was introduced by Kahn expert Steffen Fahl and Werner Grünzweig, director of the music archive at the Akademie.
Lecture Recital in San Antonio, Texas
June 14, 2018
In this lecture recital, Norbert Meyn (tenor) and Robert Brewer (piano) will perform a selection of songs composed by migrant musicians from Nazi-Europe who settled in Britain in the 1930s and 40s. The lecture will tell the stories of some of these musicians, and it will also reflect on the problems they encountered as well as the challenges their arrival posed for their British colleagues. Finally, with a view to what is going on in our world right now, it will ask what we can learn from their experience about nationalism and protectionism and about the cultural significance of migration.
WINTERREISE at the COCKPIT THEATRE
Sunday December 10, 3pm and Monday December 11, 7pm
Produced by Euphonia Studio and performed in the round, this production will offer an intimate experience of Schubert's famous song cycle. Norbert will be singing and the multi-talented Alisdair kitchen will play the piano, direct and design. Not to be missed!
Leaves from the Isle of Man
April 2, 2017, 5.30pm
On 2 April 2017, Norbert and Ensemble Émigré return to the Liberal Jewish Synagogue with a programme of words and music that brings together the voices of German and Austrian composers who came to Britain seeking refuge from Nazi oppression, and who were ‘collared’ by Churchill in the internment camps on the Isle of Man from 1940–41.
The Barbed Lyre: Leaves from the Isle of Man celebrates the extraordinary resilience and creative spirit of artists in the face of migration, detention and uncertainty. The concert weaves together poetry and music written in the internment camps – including works by Kurt Schwitters, Hans Gál and Peter Gellhorn – with stories of contemporaries, and music that celebrates the cultural legacy of an Island where sun-seeking holidaymakers after the War found themselves staying in boarding houses that were once occupied by refugees.
Further events with new ensemble
Autumn 2016
Further concerts are planned for the new ensemble EMIGRE on November 21 and December 14 in London this autumn. For details do have a look at the new website for the ensemble, created by the wonderful designer and artist Joseph Kohlmaier, who will perform with the ensemble again in April next year.
Ensemble EMIGRE concert at Austrian Cultural Forum
June 19, 2016, 4pm
After four years of performance projects and research about emigre musicians
at the Royal College of Music I have teamed up with my colleagues to start a
professional ensemble dedicated to their music and legacy.
For this performance the wonderful Sigridur Osk will come from Iceland to sing songs from our
recording of ENGEL LUND’s BOOK OF FOLK SONGS. You can also hear some
wonderful violin pieces by Peter Gellhorn, who is the subject of our current project
at the RCM, performed by star player Eunsley Park.
as well as songs by Joseph Horovitz, Robert Kahn and
Hans Gal, accompanied by Lucy Colquhoun. The programme will be narrated by the amazing performer and designer
Joseph Kohlmair. There will also be a special treat with Gesprochener Musik by Ernst Toch.
Concert at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue
Sunday Jan 24, 5.30pm
Come to this extraordinary concert, a collaboration of the "Singing a Song in a Foreign Land" project at the Royal College of Music with the LJS, the artist Joseph Kohlmaier and the duo "Postcards from Europe". The programme features Lieder and music for violin and piano by Gerhard Braun, Robert Kahn, Victor Ullmann, Karl Rankl, Hans Gal and others, interwoven with spoken prose and poetry. Not to be missed!
New DVD about Singing
August 12, 2015
The latest DVD produced by Norbert Meyn, Nr. 3 in the History of Vocal Teaching Series, is now available. The film features Italian Mezzo-Soprano Laura Sarti MBE, who at the age of 90 passes on her knowledge, accumulated during a wonderful carreer as a singer and from more than 40 years of teaching as a professor at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama in London.
What a Life! by Hans Gal at the European Council Strasbourg
Nov 7, 2013, 6pm
Norbert's Royal College of Music production of "What a Life", a revue written by the Austrian composer Hans Gal during his internment on the Isle of Man in 1940, will go to Strasbourg on November 7, 2013. Organised by Forum Voix Etouffées.
Upcoming and Recent Performances
2023
Jan 22, Herstmonceux Castle
The Wanderer - Songs by Franz Schubert and Robert Kahn, with pianist Shelley Katz
2022
March 23, 2022, St Paul's Cathedral, London
'Never to Forget' by Howard Goodall, soloist with the London Symphony Chorus
March 29, Douglas, Isle of Man
Recital with Ensemble Emigre as part of Jewish Renaissance tour
June 28, Austrian Cultural Forum London
Songs by Erik Sanders, with pianist Dominic Doutney
2020
Jan 29, 2020, Lecture and Performance at Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, details here.
Feb 1, 2020, Bonhoeffer Centre London
Schumann, Brahms and Kahn Lieder, details here.
Feb 28, 2020, Sarum College Salisbury
A Feast of German Lieder, with pianist Alisdair Kitchen
Sept 17, 2020, Musiksommer Nordrügen
Lieder and Chamber Music by Robert Kahn Ensemble Emigre
Sept 18, 2020, Stralsund, Germany
Lieder and Chamber Music by Robert Kahn Ensemble Emigre
Sept 22, 2020, Weimar, Germany
Lieder and Chamber Music by Robert Kahn Ensemble Emigre
2019
February 2, London
Bonhoeffer Day, Lieder by Schubert and English Songs, click here for details
German Lutheran Church, Sydenham
February 6, London
Musical Migrants, Lecture Recital,
Kings College London
March 11, Berlin
Robert Kahn concert with Ensemble Emigre
Akademie der Künste Berlin
June 3, Oxford
Egon Wellesz celebration,
Lincoln College Oxford
June 28, London
Lecture at Victoria and Albert Museum London
July 15, 11.30am, Oxford
Lecture at Musica Judaica Conference Oxford
August 22, Stralsund/Germany
Kahn and Brahms Lieder at bankdruecken
Stralsund, Germany
August 23, Hiddensee/Germany
Robert Kahn Lieder at Hauptmannhaus
Hiddensee, Germany
November 10, London
INSIDERS/OUTSIDERS - The Concert. A Celebration of Emigre Musicians from Nazi Europe in Britain, concert at New North London Synagaogue
2018
November 6/13/20/27, London
Love of Lieder, Lecture Recitals
Liberal Jewish Synagogue
November 10, London
Hampstead Arts Festival
Lieder by Robert Kahn and Karl Rankl
June 26/July 3, London
Love of Song, Lecture Recitals at the Liberal Jewish Synagogue
June 23, Manchester
Ensemble EMIGRE, Anthony Burgess Foundation, Manchester, Peter Gellhorn and music from British WW2 internment
June 14, San Antonio/Texas
Lecture Recital, Anglican Musicians Conference
March 14, London
Ensemble EMIGRE for Exile Research Centre, University of London, Lieder by Schubert, Brahms, Rankl and Rauter
Austrian Cultural Forum London,
February 3, London
Bonhoeffer Day, Lieder by Schubert, Rankl and Rauter,
German Lutheran Church, Sydenham