Lectures and Concerts
Conference Marking the 100th Birthday of Composer, Harpsichordist, and Organist Ruth Zechlin
To mark the 100th birthday of composer, harpsichordist, and organist Ruth Zechlin, the Department of Musicology Weimar-Jena invites you to a public conference. Under the title “Aesthetic and Political Constellations,” the symposium, taking place from June 26 to 28, 2026, in the Jenny-Fleischer-Alt-Saal at the Beethovenhaus Belvedere, will explore the work and legacy of Ruth Zechlin at the intersection of music, history, and society. Admission is free!
The conference will be accompanied by a series of public concerts featuring rarely performed works. To kick things off in style, the Weimar Music University’s choir, conducted by Kerstin Behnke and accompanied by students from the accordion class, will perform on Friday, June 26, at 7:30 p.m. in the Orangery of Belvedere Palace. The program features Ruth Zechlin’s radio oratorio “Reineke Fuchs” from 1962.
This will be followed by a “Salon Zechlin” on Saturday, June 27 at 12:00 PM in the Jenny-Fleischer-Alt-Saal with students from the university and guests. Finally, a third concert will feature Ruth Zechlin’s equally rare “Pfingstmotette für Sopran, Chor und Orgel” on Sunday, June 28, at 11:30 a.m. in the Jenny-Fleischer-Alt-Saal. Admission to all concerts is free!
Zechlin’s artistic journey spans vastly different political and cultural contexts—from National Socialism through the GDR to reunified Germany—and raises fundamental questions about the relationship between musical structure, aesthetic stance, and biographical experience. The conference will focus both on analyses of individual works and groups of works as well as on broader contexts: artistic networks and institutional contexts, aesthetic debates of the second half of the 20th century, and political and social conditions.
The presentations will address, among other things, Zechlin’s international connections, her position between East and West, questions of gender and musical identity, the reception of contemporary composers such as György Ligeti, and analytical perspectives on key works. The conference brings together perspectives from musicology, contemporary history, and the practice of New Music and is aimed at researchers, students, and anyone interested in contemporary music.
Further information: https://www.hfm-weimar.de/department-of-music-weimar-jena/events-exkursions trips/conferences-congresses-ringvorlesungen/
[5 June 2026]