Articles and news related to the Songs For Eternity project

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“The film based on my concert SONGS FOR ETERNITY is now available. It is a very poetic  and heartbreaking film illustrating the music in the ghettos. The concert was filmed in my hometown Muenster. I conceived this project to remind people not to forget. Please watch it.  – Ute”

In Songs for Eternity, Ute Lemper revives songs by Jewish composers that were written in the concentration camps of the Second World War and given to her in a songbook by her agent Orly Beigel.

The moving concert film accompanies the two on their journey to Bergen-Belsen, where Orly’s mother was imprisoned and eventually liberated by the US army. Ute Lemper sensitively and profoundly traces the emotional world of the Jewish composers and gives a touching musical memorial to their past.

This release will be available for purchase on September 20, 2024.

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Publication: Westfälische Nachrichten
Date: Dienstag, 5.10.2021


Foto: Steffen Thalemann

Deutschlandpremiere von „Songs for Eternity“

Ute Lemper gastiert im Theater Münster mit ihrem Programm „Songs for Eternity“

2015 trat Ute Lemper bei einer Gedenkveranstaltung anlässlich des 70. Jahrestages der Befreiung des Vernichtungslagers Auschwitz auf. Im selbem Jahr lernte die in New York lebende Sängerin den Pianisten, Komponisten und Musikwissenschaftler Francesco Lotoro kennen. Der Italiener forscht zu Musik, die in Konzentrationslagern und Ghettos entstand. Einige tausend Musikstücke und Lieder hat er wiederentdeckt, archiviert und eingespielt.

Lieder und Schicksale nicht vergessen

So entstand für Ute Lemper die Dringlichkeit, aus dem gesammelten Liedgut ein Programm zu erstellen. „Für mich als Nachkriegsdeutsche ist es wichtiges Anliegen – ich fühle mich in der Verantwortung, das Material dem Publikum zugänglich zu machen, so dass die Lieder und die damit verbundenen Schicksale nicht in Vergessenheit geraten.“ Ute Lemper singt auf Deutsch und Jiddisch.

Die Deutschlandpremiere des Programms „Songs for Eternity“ im Rahmen der 30. Jüdischen Kulturtage enthält Stücke, die zwischen 1941 und 1944 von jüdischen Gefangenen in den Konzentrationslagern und Ghettos entstanden. Unter ihnen befanden sich renommierte Komponisten wie Viktor Ullman und Willy Rosen.

Wiegen- und Kinderlieder sollten Trost spenden

Ilse Weber hingegen war eine bekannte Autorin, die in Theresienstadt als Kinderkrankenschwester arbeitete und ihre eigenen Gedichte vertonte. Bei einem Großteil der Songs handelt es sich um Wiegen- und Kinderlieder, die Trost spenden sollten. „Einige Stücke wurden gesungen, während die Häftlinge ewig in der Schlange bei der Essensausgabe warteten oder in den Zügen, wenn die Menschen erneut deportiert wurden“, erklärt Ute Lemper den Hintergrund. „Andere hielten traumatische Erlebnisse fest, beispielsweise den systematischen Mord an Kindern in den Ghettos.“ Die Grausamkeit und alltägliche Präsenz der Gewalt in einem vermeintlich zivilisierten Land ist für Lemper ein Gräuel.

„Es ist unbegreiflich, wie eine komplette Nation die Barbarei unterstützte. Die Rechtfertigung, man habe nichts mitbekommen, ist für mich nicht akzeptabel.“ Umso wichtiger erscheint es Ute Lemper, Menschen zu sensibilisieren, ihre Empathiefähigkeit zu stärken. Dies könne und müsse Kunst leisten, gerade vor dem Wiedererstarken von reaktionärem und völkischem Gedankengut.

Tickets gibt an der Theaterkasse oder online.

View this article online here.

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(Click here to view the video on the NY1 website)

Publication: NY1
By: Frank Dilella
Date: April 12, 2021

NEW YORK — Songstress Ute Lemper is a celebrated performer who is used to traveling the world, bringing music to the masses. But for the past year, her rehearsal room and stage has been pretty much limited to her Upper West Side apartment.

And of course being home means she wears many hats, including the given “Mom” plus teacher and even gardener.

The actress who has made a healthy living performing in concerts and musical theater here in New York and on the road is now, like many performers, doing the streaming thing.

“I was able to film my Marlene Dietrich theater play,” said Lemper.

Over the years Lemper has been compared to the legendary Marlene Dietrich. She created a piece based on an interaction she had with the actress in the 1980s while performing the role of Sally Bowles in the Parisian production of “Cabaret”.

“I couldn’t believe I was being compared to this legend  with so many careers from Weimar cabaret to this Hollywood diva, she was a chanteuse,” said Lemper.

Ute’s “Rendezvous with Marlene” was filmed for digital streaming at Club Cumming in the East Village. In addition Lemper is gearing up to perform in Carnegie Hall’s “Voices of Hope” festival an online presentation that shines a spotlight on work that was created by artists who were in difficult and often times horrific situations. For her concert  on April 18th “Songs for Eternity” Lemper will sing music created by victims of The Holocaust.

“It is a most precious concert to me, a very difficult concert that breaks my heart to perform it. In the beginning I couldn’t I had a clot of tears in my throat,” said Lemper.

And while Lemper admits she’s itching to be back on a physical stage, she says there is a silver lining to all of this and that this reset of sorts has taught her many things.

“Because the life after the pandemic for me will not be the same as it was before. I will  definitely pick and choose, make clever choices about, maybe a better balance between my life with my family and my life on stage,” said Lemper.

To check out Lemper’s upcoming virtual performances head to CarnegieHall.org.

Click here to view the video clip on NY1

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Click here (and scroll down slightly) to view the archive of the livestream performance and program from Ute’s living room, which was part of the Carnegie Hall Live Streaming series, honoring the 75th anniversary of the liberation of concentration camps with songs of rebellion, hope, defiance, and life-affirming resilience written during the Holocaust.

Accompanying Ute for this live performance of excerpts from Songs for Eternity, were Vana Gierig on Piano and Max Lemper on guitar, and the program featured a live conversation on Zoom with Orly Beigel in Mexico City (whose mother survived Bergen Belsen by being on the Death Train at Farsleben) and others.