Guests from South America
Workshop and concert featuring Chilean art songs as part of the Liedtage festival
During the winter semester, Prof. Christoph Ritter and his students explored “German-language Chilean art songs between late Romanticism, Impressionism, and Modernism.” As part of the Liedtage XVIII, there will now be a workshop with two guest professors from Chile and a public final concert on Tuesday, February 10, at 7:30 p.m. in the Festsaal Fürstenhaus. Admission is free!
“It was a very exciting opportunity to discover a largely unknown and highly original repertoire,” says Prof. Christoph Ritter, who teaches work study and song and part study at the Department of Vocal Studies and Theatre. “Chilean composers have diverse relationships with the German language and culture. We encounter fascinating artist biographies that span cultures,” Ritter continues.
The program for the final concert includes songs by Leni Alexander, Federico Heinlein, Hans Helfritz, Carmela Mackenna, Alfonso Leng, and Alfonso Montecino. These are world premieres and German premieres. The idea for this song course arose in an exchange with colleagues from the Universidad Alberto Hurtado Santiago de Chile, with which the University of Music FRANZ LISZT Weimar has a cooperation agreement. In preparation for the concert, professors Gonzalo Simonetti and Gonzalo Cuadra, who have traveled from Chile, will share their experiences with the students in a workshop.
Video recordings of selected songs from the program will be published on the Weimar University's YouTube channel and then linked to the internet platform “Anthologie de la Canción de Arte Chilena” (Anthology of Chilean Art Songs: https://antologiadelacancion.uahurtado.cl). This anthology was created at the Music Institute of Alberto Hurtado University to preserve classical songs for voice and piano by Chilean and foreign composers who have lived in the country. The anthology project includes audiovisual recordings of each song, the publication of the score, and guidance for interpretation.
Chile's national vocal repertoire in written tradition can be traced back to the early 19th century. In general, this was a repertoire for voice and piano with romantic or sentimental lyrics, in a simple style intended for domestic use. At the beginning of the 20th century, under the influence of musicians who had been trained at the National Conservatory and following the example of the European art song repertoire, a Chilean equivalent emerged in which these influences were clearly recognizable.
Throughout the 20th and 21st centuries, the art song scene in Chile went hand in hand with global trends and positions, linked to political and artistic ideas, avant-garde creative and experimental lines, or even a more traditional approach. The “Antología de la Canción de Arte” (Anthology of Art Song) of the Alberto Hurtado University covers this repertoire from three centuries, most of which is unpublished or little known, and testifies to its quality, diversity, and relevance.
Prof. Gonzalo Simonetti is a trained baritone and vocal coach who works at the Music Institute of Alberto Hurtado University, where he teaches singing and phonetics in the “Interpretación Superior mención Canto” program. His engagements as a singer have taken him to opera houses in Weimar, Erfurt, Meiningen, and Görlitz, among others.
Prof. Gonzalo Cuadra is a singer, musicologist, composer, and director. In the field of Chilean art song, he has been co-director of the project “Antología de la canción de arte chilena” at Alberto Hurtado University for five years.
[6 February 2026]