Max Raabe & Palast Orchester CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS AT UBC
“This is a ticket to a better world — a mixture of kitschy
atmosphere and black humour, a mixture of human beings and strange harmonies. It is the reason I am going on stage and why I love this music, because this music keeps me away from the outside world.” – Max Raabe (LA Times, 2012)
Max Raabe & Palast Orchester Presented by the CHAN CENTRE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
Pre-show Reception*
Please join us in the lobby before the show for a sweet German treat.
Pre-show Talk
Concert
Max Raabe - Vocals Cecilia Crisafulli - Violin Thomas Huder - Trumpet, Vocals Michael Enders - Trumpet, Vocals, Musical Director Robert Gutowski - Trombone Bernd Frank - Tenor Sax, Clarinet Johannes Ernst - Alto Sax, Clarinet Sven Bährens - Alto Sax, Clarinet Rainer Fox – Baritone Sax, Clarinet, Vocals Fabio Duwentester - Drums, Percussion Bernd Hugo Dieterich - Bass, Sousaphone Ulrich Hoffmeier - Guitar, Banjo, Violin Ian Wekwerth – Piano
6:15pm, Royal Bank Cinema With Dr. Kyle Frackman and Dr. Ilinca Iurasca 7:00pm, Chan Shun Concert Hall
There will be 20-minute intermission. Set list to be announced from the stage. Please remember to turn off your phones, and note that photography and recording are not permitted. Thank you!
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This pre-show reception has been made possible through the generous support of the Consul General of the Federal Republic of Germany in Vancouver.
Max Raabe & Palast Orchester Dashing, dapper and debonair, Max Raabe might have walked straight out of the Golden Age of Berlin in the 1920s. With his elegant poise, suave sophistication and silky-smooth baritone, he brings to life the songs and style of a bygone age. Style that has gone out of fashion, perhaps, in an age where few of us dress for dinner or even a night at the opera - but songs that have earned the status of standards. Yet the time has never been better to discover the singer bringing timeless tunes by legends like Cole Porter and Irving Berlin, through to almost-forgotten names such as Al Bowlly and Fred Astaire, to a new generation. With a vintage revival sweeping the globe, and growing numbers of twentysomethings donning tuxedos, flapper dresses and feathered head-bands to do the charleston and the foxtrot, Max Raabe’s moment has arrived. His ageless Peter Pan looks and impeccable style on and offstage have already made him a legend in his native Germany. In North America, multi-city tours and enthusiastic coverage have earned him similar popularity. Highlights in the US include sold out performances at Carnegie Hall, and appearances in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Philadelphia, Boston, Atlanta, Seattle, Cleveland and many more. Audiences around the world are entertained not only by his meticulous recreations of the standards as they used to be sung, but also by his deadpan jokes. Yes, Max Raabe is an example of that most unexpected quality – German humour. He assures us that: “All Germans are well aware that we have an international reputation for discipline, organization and efficiency - but no sense of humour.” Born into a family of farmers just as The Beatles were serving their apprenticeship in the bars and clubs of Hamburg, Max’s childhood musical tastes were formed by his discovery of a weekly programme of 1920s music on German radio. “My brother was listening to Jethro Tull but that was my secret passion,” he remembers. “It was broadcast on Tuesday nights when I had to attend sports training, but I persuaded a friend of mine to record it for me every week. He would patiently hold the microphone to the radio in my family’s kitchen – sometimes you could hear my mother cooking in the background.” His passion was first roused by a record he found in his parents’ cupboard: a humourous instrumental called I’m Crazy About Hilda. Before long he was collecting 78s from flea markets and junk shops. By the age of 16 he was an expert on the songs and styles of the Weimar era, his enthusiasm fueled by black-and-white films featuring music, dance and comedy. Then came the discovery of Wagner - “That made me aware of how wonderful it must be to go onstage and sing” - and of the Lieder maestro Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, who remains his musical idol. Still in his teens, he plucked up the courage to dress up in his father’s top hat and tails at the height of the disco era to sing old-fashioned favorites at parties for friends.
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In his early 20s Max moved to Berlin to study opera, dreaming of becoming a baritone but moonlighting with a friend to perform the 1920s songs he loved so much at bars and student parties. After graduating, he made a handful of appearances in Carmina Burana at the Berlin Philharmonie, but quickly realized his true love remained the music of the 1920s. Surprised to find that there was no ensemble performing such songs, he formed the Palast Orchester with some fellow students.
“The appeal is the timeless quality in the music, but also the humour,” Max says. “Because perhaps a woman brings her husband to a concert and he might not like the singer or the music, but he may like the humour of the jokes.” Despite that, the songs and music are treated with the utmost reverence. “It is like a church service. The stage is the altar, and I am the priest. Every note and ever phrase is polished like a diamond. We all studied classical music and we interpret the music in the same way we would interpret Beethoven. We take the music seriously – but we don’t take ourselves seriously.”
Therein lies the appeal of Max Raabe, a man out of time, yet entirely in tune with today’s Recession-hit world, where – just like Berlin in the 1920s – we all want to take our minds off austerity with a night of good old-fashioned entertainment. “My only message is to entertain the audience during the concert and transport them out of reality. That is why this music was written, to take the audience away from their everyday problems. And it still works today.” 5
Exploring the role of the arts and artists in society. chancentre.com/connects
Pre-show Talk with Dr. Kyle Frackman and Dr. Ilinca Iurascu 6:15pm: Royal Bank Cinema, Chan Centre Join Dr. Kyle Frackman and Dr. Ilinca Iurascu from UBC’s Central, Eastern and Northern European Studies for a fascinating look at the Weimar Republic. Dr. Kyle Frackman teaches in both German and Scandinavian subject areas, and his research interests include 18th- to 20th-century German literature, the history and culture of the former East Germany, and German and Nordic film. Originally from Anchorage, Alaska, Dr. Frackman taught at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Smith College, and Amherst College before joining the faculty here at UBC in 2012. Dr. Ilinca Iurascu completed her PhD at University of Pennsylvania, after which she joined the Graduiertenkolleg Mediale Historiographienat the Bauhaus-University Weimar. Since coming to UBC, she has launched – together with Gaby Pailer and Franziska Schößler – an international research and publication project on the media histories of the Girls in Uniform material. She is currently preparing a co-edited volume on postal networks and epistolary film and a book-length study exploring the transformation of the concept of banality in 19th-century German culture. This pre-show talk is presented in partnership with the Peter Wall Institute for Advanced Studies at UBC.
Chan Centre Presents 2017-18 Series Announcement… Coming Soon! The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts will be announcing the 2017-18 Chan Centre Presents series in May! Be sure to get on the list for our email newsletter if you’d like to be among the first to find out about the exciting artists we have lined up for our 20th anniversary season. Visit chancentre.com, scroll to the bottom of the page, and enter your email address in the “Newsletter” section to subscribe.
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The Chan Centre for the Performing Arts at UBC Joyce Hinton Cameron McGill Jazel Argente Carl Armstrong Wendy Atkinson Brad Danyluk Kara Gibbs David Humphrey Flora Lew Glenda Makela Trevor Mangion Chloe Martin-Cabanne Caitlin McKee Claire Mohun George Pereira Andrew Riter Nadia Roberts Lyndsey Roberts Kim Smith
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Vanessa Borowicz Janice Lew Valentina Montilla Taryn Plater
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“The music we do is weaved together through
stories and life When The Chan Centre would likeexperiences. to thank our 2016/2017 seriespeople sponsors: come to hear us, I hope they are uplifted The Chan Endowment Fund and the UBC Faculty of Arts
and that we give them a lot to take home.” – Dianne Reeves (San Diego Union-Tribune, 2016)
Upcoming Events at the Chan Centre Full details at chancentre.com
Apr 12 & 13 at 7:30pm: Jane Goodall: The Birthday Tour – SOLD OUT Presented by the Jane Goodall Institute of Canada
Apr 15 at 8pm: Once Upon A Time Presented by the Vancouver Pops Symphony and Choir
Apr 21 at 8pm: Chanticleer in Concert Presentd by Chor Leoni
Apr 22 at 4pm: MYVoice at the Chan Presented by Chor Leoni
Apr 22 at 7:30pm: Van/Man Male Choral Summit Presented by Chor Leoni
Apr 23 at 3pm: Murray Perahia, piano Presented by Vancouver Recital Society
May 4 at 7:30pm: Stand Together Presented by Choirs from Little Flower Academy
May 7 at 3pm: Benjamin Grosvenor, piano Presented by Vancouver Recital Society
May 8 at 8pm: An Evening with Lawrence Krauss Presented by Pangburn Philosophy
May 13 at 8pm: Spirit Alive Gala Choir Concert Presented by St Patrick Regional Secondary
May 14 at 3pm: Glowing Hearts, Canada’s 150th with the VYSO Presented by the Vancouver Youther Symphony Orchestra
BENJAMIN GROSVENOR
JANE GOODALL
CHANTICLEER