The Festival European Music Trails showcases Leipzig's musical heritage with its interconnections within Europe: composers and musicians who have lived, studied and worked in Leipzig and whose work has had an influence on European musical life are placed centre stage and, in combination with other art forms, illuminated and reinterpreted in a multifaceted way. This year's festival marks the culmination of a three-year creative period of Notenspur Leipzig e.V. with cultural partner institutions from France and Italy, the results of which are reflected in the individual programme components. You can look forward to exciting events and different art forms centred around Johann Sebastian Bach! We are not only combining poetry with baroque music, but also hip-hop and breakdance. We are particularly looking forward to the 18 early music students from France, Italy and Germany, who will be playing works by Bach with a French influence together as the Bach Academy Orchestra, and to our travelling exhibition ‘The Art of Movement in Baroque Times’, which - freshly returned from Italy and France - will be stopping off in Leipzig before going on tour again.

16.11.2024, 5 p.m.
Gohliser Schlösschen, Menckestr. 23
Entrance fee: presale 15,- €/reduced 10,- €, remaining tickets at the box office 20,-€/reduced 15,- €

with Martina Müller (soprana), Clemens Harasim (archlute), Saskia Klapper (violin), Felix Schönherr (organ), Eva Morlang (music journalists)

To kick off this year's festival, a lively salon concert will give a stage to works by female composers from the Baroque period that have rarely or never been heard before. These beautiful pieces will be framed by poems and texts by the Baroque poetess Sibylla Schwarz and Johann Sebastian Bach's librettist Christiana Mariana von Ziegler.
The programme includes works by female composers from England, France, Italy and Germany. The best-known Baroque composer among them is probably the Venetian Barbara Strozzi. Also from Italy is the singer and composer Francesca Caccini, who was employed at the Medici court and already had a busy concert schedule at the time. Sophie Elisabeth, Princess of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, was not only responsible for organising the court music, but also took lessons in composition from Heinrich Schütz. Our programme includes both sacred pieces and contemporary political works of hers.
Mary Harvey, The Lady Dering, was born in England and studied composition with Henry Lawes. He dedicated his second songbook to her and published three of her songs in it. Only these pieces have been preserved by her and represent a novelty in that they are the first published compositions by a woman in England. Élisabeth-Claude Jacquet de la Guerre was a French composer and harpsichordist. She was the first woman to compose an opera: Céphale et Procris. You can hear an aria from it in our programme.

Monday, 18.11.2024, mornings, for school children (free of charge, by registration only)
Monday, 18.11.2024, 7 p.m.
GRASSI Museum für Musikinstrumente, Johannisplatz 5-11
Entrance fees: presale 15,- €/reduced 10,- €, remaining tickets at the box office 20,-€/reduced 15,- €

with Mareike Greb & Giles Bennett (dance), Babett Niclas (harp), Petra Burmann (baroque guitarre, theorbo) and Michael Spieker (Pochette, baroque violin)

Leipzig was a flourishing dance metropolis in Bach's time, where not only many German-language dance books were printed, but also numerous dance masters gave lessons. The nobility and citizens also enjoyed themselves at numerous events, while the opera and trade fair offered further attractions. Through the theatrical and anecdote-rich performance with music on historical instruments, a dancing couple will take you on an entertaining, but also elegant and informative journey through Little Paris. Anyone who likes is cordially invited to dance along!

Monday, 18.11.2024, 3:30 p.m. & 5 p.m.
Tuesday, 19.11.2024, 3:30 p.m. & 5 p.m.
Höfe am Brühl, Brühl 1
Entrance free

with Hubert Hazebroucq (baroque dance, FRA), Picca (HipHop, ITA), Aude Walker-Viry (Cello, FRA). Direction: Gerrit Berenike Heiter, composition and technical equipment: Clément Walker-Viry, artistic director: Franck-Emmanuel Comte

This event is an opportunity to discover new facets of hip hop and baroque and to gain surprising impressions. With the melodies of Bach, the cellist Aude Walker-Viry allows the dancers Hubert Hazebroucq and Picca to express themselves with their bodies in their respective dance forms. One is a baroque dancer, the other a hip-hop dancer, but together they offer a diverse and powerful dialogue between these two worlds.
The show Movimento, which has already been successfully performed in Lyon (FRA) and Modena (ITA), is a choreographic experiment in which each of the three artists brings their own way of expressing themselves. Johann Sebastian Bach's music forms the basis for the performance of cellist Walker-Viry, who, equipped with headphones and a loop station, also breaks new musical ground. Specially developed for highly frequented locations such as train stations or shopping centres, the event offers an ‘accidental’ and entertaining encounter with Leipzig's musical history and at the same time opens up new perspectives on the music of the Baroque period.

Tuesday, 19.11.2024, morning, open rehearsal for school children (free of charge, by registration only)
Tuesday, 19.11.2024, 7 p.m.
Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche zu Leipzig, Tröndlinring 7
Entrance fee: presale 15,- €/reduced 10,- €, remaining tickets at the box office 20,-€/reduced 15,- €

with Priska Comploi (flute), Franziska Schötensack (violin), Augusto Gasbarri (cello) and 18 musicians from Germany, France and Italy, directed by Mario Sollazzo

‘Bach - The Art of Movement’, the core theme of the overarching European Music Trails, examines the music of the famous Leipzig composer from the perspective of his connections to other European musicians. The programme of the Bach Academy Orchestra was also selected in this context. The Brandenburg Concertos themselves clearly point to the international influences, on the one hand by taking Italian concerto forms as a basis, and on the other by picking up on special features of contemporary French court music.
The 18 Bach Academy students from three countries were selected from a large number of applications to take part in the Bach Academy Orchestra. They rehearsed together for the first time for a week in July in Modena/Italy, where they also played their first concert as part of the Altro Suono festival, before performing immediately afterwards at the Bach Festival in Saint-Donat/France. The tour through the three countries will conclude with a further week of rehearsals and a concert during the Europäische Notenspuren festival in Leipzig and participation in the Notenspur-Nacht der Hausmusik (Notenspur-Night of Making Music at Home).

The concert title alludes to a key element of Baroque music, the ‘basso continuo’, Italian for ‘continuous bass’. This in turn is considered the basis for the ‘walking bass’ in jazz, which fulfils an almost identical function. Accordingly, Bach's music runs as a common thread through all current events of the European Music Trails and also forms the continuous element of this concert.

Thursday, 21.11.2024, 3:30 & 5:00 p.m.
Höfe am Brühl, Brühl 1
Entrance free

With Babett Niclas (harp), Friederike Merkel (recorder), Hannes Malkowski (percussion) and the breakdancers of "The Saxonz" Lehmi, Kellox und Easyone

‘When Notenspur came to us and said: ‘Why don't you do something with breakdancers?’, we thought: ‘How can that work? We're playing music by Bach and Rameau, what are the contact points? But there are always many more points of contact than you might think. And that should be infectious.’ - This quote from Babett Niclas, the project's harpist, perfectly summarises the aim of the event: to overcome supposed barriers between different genres and therefore also different audience groups, to broaden one's own horizons and to discover references to one's own interests in what was previously unfamiliar.
What the two art forms have in common is improvisation. Improvisation is a key component of baroque music because the notes of the baroque works only form a basic framework for the musicians, which they then interpret and develop. Breakdance also has this element, explain the dancers from ‘The Saxonz’: ‘Breakdance is improvisation. The dance in its original form is a battle between two dancers or groups who react quickly to the music and their opponents. The musical genre doesn't play the decisive role as long as it invites movement.’

Friday, 22.11.2024, 8 p.m.
Ost-Passage Theater, Konradstraße 27 (above ALDI)
Entrance fee: presale 10,- €/reduced 6,- €, remaining tickets at the box office 12,- €/reduced 8,- €

with Franck-Emmanuel Comte (harpsichord, FRA), Aude Walker-Viry (cello, FRA), Tiko (human beatbox, FRA), Mehdi Krüger (poet, FRA), Josephine von Blütenstaub (poet, Leipzig), Simone Savogin (poet, ITA)

In the winter of 1705, the then 20-year-old Johann Sebastian Bach undertook a journey of more than 400 kilometres on foot from Arnstadt to Lübeck to meet the greatest organist in northern Germany: Dietrich Buxtehude. Based on this famous episode, which undoubtedly represented both a spiritual and artistic quest for the young man, the three poets Simone Savogin (Italy), Josephine von Blütenstaub (Leipzig) and Mehdi Krüger (France), together with the French musicians Franck-Emmanuel Comte, Aude Walker-Viry and Tiko, developed a stage show that combines the music of Johann Sebastian Bach with poetic texts in German, Italian and French.
Inspired by the artistic path travelled by Johann Sebastian Bach, the poets - each in their own mother tongue - explore an inner journey. Mehdi Krüger says of the project: ‘As in the river of life, we sail through storms of fear and clouds of doubt, carried by the waves of baroque music, in search of self-acceptance. Babel Bach is a meeting of languages on Franck-Emmanuel Comte's bridge to Bach.’

23.11.2024, 7 p.m.
Several venues, by registration only
Entrance free

With musicians from the Bach Academy Orchestra

Not only Leipzig musicians perform at the Notenspur-Night of Making Music at Home, but also the international members of this year's Bach Academy Orchestra. Divided into smaller ensembles, they will perform excerpts from the orchestral concert as well as additional pieces. When citizens from Leipzig and the neighbouring districts open their homes to the musicians and share their love of music with them and other guests, it sends a strong message about the unifying power of music.

Tuesday, 05.11. - Thursday, 19.12.2024
Höfe am Brühl, Brühl 1
Entrance free

Specially designed for highly frequented public places, the exhibition is divided into three parts and deals with the art of movement in the areas of music, dance and ideas, with a particular focus on the European dimension in music of the Baroque period, based on the three countries Germany, France and Italy.

As part of the Europäische Notenspuren festival, free events are organised for school classes of all ages. These provide children and young people with low-threshold access to classical music and give them an insight into the lives of international festival musicians.

Admission to all events for school classes is free. Due to the limited number of places, however, registration is mandatory. Please register via Miriam Laschinski, laschinski@notenspur-leipzig.de. Exact times by arrangement.

On the Trail of Dance - dance in Bach's time in Leipzig
18.11.2024, mornings/time to be arranged, duration approx. 90 min.
GRASSI Museum für Musikinstrumente, Johannisplatz 5-11
with Mareike Greb & Giles Bennett (dance), Babett Niclas (harp), Petra Burmann (baroque guitarre, theorbo) and Michael Spiecker (pochette, baroque violin)

Leipzig was a flourishing dance metropolis in Johann Sebastian Bach's time. Renowned dance masters gave lessons here and the nobility and citizens enjoyed themselves on numerous occasions. In a theatrical performance, a dancing couple leads the pupils on an entertaining, anecdote-filled journey through baroque Leipzig. The performance is accompanied by music played on historical instruments. At the end, there is a guided dance in which the pupils can become active themselves.

Walking Bach – Open concert rehearsao of the Bach Academy Orchestra
19.11.2024, mornings/time to be arranged, duration approx. 90 min.
Evangelisch-Reformierte Kirche zu Leipzig, Tröndlinring 7
with Anna Fusek (flute), Franziska Schötensack (violin), Augusto Gasbarri (cello) and 18 musicians from Germany, France and Italy directed by Mario Sollazzo

Pupils can experience a rehearsal of the Bach Academy Orchestra live and ask the musicians and conductor questions at the end. The Bach Academy Orchestra is made up of 18 early music students from three different countries. They played together for the first time during an academy week in Modena (ITA). In Leipzig, they will perform an excerpt from Johann Sebastian Bach's Brandenburg Concertos. The French influences on Bach's compositions are particularly evident in these pieces.

Visit to Music Lessons
21. oder 22.11.2024, mornings/time to be arranged
2-4 musicians from the Bach Academy Orchestra visit music lessons in schools to give children a low-threshold introduction to baroque music. They introduce their instruments, talk about their profession as musicians and also talk about their country of origin. They bring along baroque pieces of music, but also folk songs from their countries or, for example, small rhythmic games that are played together with the children. If they are interested and the school has instruments, they can also rehearse pieces together with the children.