Matitjahu Kellig is chairman of the organization
"cultura reanimata - Förderkreis für Beit Theresienstadt e.V."
This organization works for the lasting awareness of the connection between recollection, responsibilty and civilization. The organization's overall aim is the commemoration of the culture which had been expelled and destroyed from 1933 onwards. Huge numbers of artists either had to emigrate or were locked up in Theresienstadt before being killed by the National Socialists.
Many members tolerated- an utterly significant cultural development started. Art and culture made the internees survive in this forced civilization, which had to be rebuilt anew day by day and with great pains under the circumstances of terror. For the National Socialists, art in Theresienstadt served as a cultural lie since Theresienstadt was a stopping-off place for those many extermination camps.
It is important to remind people of those artists, their works and their activities as well as of the social and political circumstances of their expulsion and extermination. By doing this, one can build a bridge to the present and the future and thus, responsibility for our civilization can be assumed. This is true especially for our present situation, since we find ourselves in the midst of an extensive cultural change. I consider it a crucial task to make sure that this change will not result in a clash in civilization. It is about the connection of cultural policy and policy concerned withcivilization. Works of the past should be handed-down, so that their human content can go on working effectively in the future.
The Toblach International Interpretation Classes, which are held annually in the Cultural Center Grand Hotel Toblach under the artistic leadership of Prof. Matitjahu Kellig, follow an exceptional concept: In the intensive course teachers and students of diverse background meet on an international basis to work with new topics and working methods of professional music education.
The concept of the Toblach Interpretation Classes includes that – in addition to the artistic-interpretational course program – all students and teachers work with psychologists, drama and personality trainers, stage directors or voice therapists and also music journalists on their appearance and by that on their self-image. The goal is to make them conscious of behavioural patterns specific to the profession and to deal with restrictive emotional mechanisms which so far dominate the narcissistically oriented self-image of the artist. Only in moving away from this self-image can respect of the artistic and pedagogical achievement of others and disciplined work on the self be developed.
Furthermore, all students are being acquainted with the basic principles of formation, as they can be deduced from the histories of literature, visual Arts, and architecture. Coming from this interest in the history of the arts, students learn principles for their own work on musical artefacts.
The way of working in the Toblach Interpretation Courses is founded on co-operation: The teachers participate in their colleagues’ classes – that is they take part as participants in the overall course concept. In this way not only knowledge is multiplied but the personal horizon widens towards a holistic way of working on which the course concept is founded.
The unique concept of the courses, the ideal conditions in the Toblach Cultural Centre, the sponsors’ attitude towards art and their responsibility and not the least the enthusiasm with which the local population observes the results of the work all lay the foundation for the success of the Courses.
In 2006, the artistic work focussed on the tension between piano and voice. Prof. Sabine Ritterbusch could be won as this year’s guest lecturer, with stage director Dirk Schmeding and correpetitor Susanne Satz at her side. In the centre of studies was Mozart’s comic opera “Le Nozze di Figaro”. The opera’s première took place as one of the events at the end of the class in the Gustav-Mahler hall of the Cultural Centre. The pianists in the course received – beside their individual studies – extra tasks in the area of song accompaniment. This corresponds in an extraordinary way with the co-operative and horizon-expanding nature of the course. The two academic lecturers – Prof. Dr. Ortwin Nimczik and Dr. Joachim Thalmann – this year focussed on the topics of music and literature and new insights into neuro-biology in view of research on music reception.