Invitation to the event "Defendig Democracy" and photo exibition opening
The Lithuanian Consulate General in New York and Elysium – between two continents / The Lahr von Leïtis Academy & Archive present "Defending Democracy A Meditation on Basic Democratic Values in Times of Political and Economic Insecurity" under the patronage of Kerry Kennedy, President, Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Literary Collage with texts by Mahatma Gandhi, Robert F. Kennedy, Hermynia zur Mühlen, Erich Mühsam, Alfred Polgar, Carl von Ossietzky, Joseph Roth, Hans Sahl, Kurt Tucholsky, Lasantha Wikrematunge, and others Thursday, January 21, 2016 at 7.00 pm Lithuanian Consulate General 420 Fifth Avenue, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10018 Admission: Free – Reservations are required For reservations please call at 212 354 7840 or e-mail ny.renginiai@urm.lt
Narrator Gregorij von Leïtis will read the various texts. Gregorij von Leïtis is winner of the New York Theatre Club Prize, Founding Artistic Director of Elysium and President of The Lahr von Leitis Academy & Archive.
Michael Lahr, Program Director of Elysium, will give a short introduction.
Additionally, the Lithuanian Consulate General is proud to announce a photography exhibition of Jonas Kuprys. The artist’s work commemorates the ongoing struggle of Lithuanian Americans to support the restoration of freedom in their homeland. Jonas is also well known as the layout artist of “Draugas” newspaper.
After the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989, the victory parade of democracy seemed unstoppable. 25 years later, the initial euphoria has given way to great disillusionment. Globalization, rising unemployment, retrenchment in social programs, marginalization of large societal groups: all this has led to shrinking trust in democracy and its institutions.
Since 2008, social and economic upheavals have been further aggravated by the bank crisis and the sovereign debt crisis. The economic crisis has developed into a crisis of democracy. In many places, the expression "post-democracy" has been used.
Today, the Western system of an open society based in democratic values is threatened from many sides. Especially in these times of political and economic uncertainty it seems more important than ever to remind ourselves of the great achievement democracy is, and that it is worth fighting for. The program “Defending Democracy” presents texts of authors and thinkers who, in their time, fought against undermining tendencies of dissolution and the erosion of the republic by totalitarian forces. The cry for simple solutions, the longing for a strong man who liberates us from the complex trap of a globalized world, is growing louder. The program "Defending Democracy" wants to take a stand against that.
Elysium – between two continents
Fostering artistic exchange, creative dialogue, and mutual friendship between the United States of America and Europe. Fighting against discrimination, racism and anti-Semitism by means of art.
The Lahr von Leitis Academy & Archive
Art and eduction without borders.
Education and knowledge as efficient tools to fight against ignorance, discrimination, and hatred.
Familiarizing the young generation with the treasures of exiled art, to help them create a meaningful future that incorporates the lessons learned from history.
More information:
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Artists’ biographies:
Michael Lahr (Concept & Introduction)
studied philosophy and adult education at the College of Philosophy in Munich and at the Jesuit University Centre Sèvres in Paris. He is editor of the book The Erwin Piscator Award, and co-author of the volume of essays Bilder des Menschen (Images of Man), to which he contributed an article entitled Jewish Humanism and the Concept of Responsibility. Most recently he published an essay on Erwin Piscator and World War I: Reconstructing the birth of his Political Theater in the Karl Jaspers Yearbook 2014, Offener Horizont.
As a specialist in Erwin Piscator, the founder of the political and epic theater, he curated the exhibit Erwin Piscator: Political Theater in Exile, which so far has been seen in Bernried, New York, Catania, Salzburg, and Munich.
As the program director of Elysium he has unearthed numerous works by artists who had to flee their home country under the pressure of the Nazi regime, or who were murdered. Many of these compositions were performed for the first time in concerts in Europe and the U.S. At the same time, he lectures regularly on questions of general social and political significance. Among other things, he has lectured at St. Norbert's College in De Pere, WI, the American Academy Berlin, the Ludwig Maximilians University Munich, Deutsches Haus at NYU, the University in Catania/Sicily, the Mozarteum University in Salzburg, Florida State University in Tallahassee, the Vytautas-Magnus University Kaunas, and the University in Vilnius.
Michael Lahr is Executive Director of The Lahr von Leïtis Academy & Archive, Vice Chairman of the Erwin Piscator Award Society, and an advisory board member of the Nietzsche Forum Munich e.V.
Gregorij H. von Leïtis (Narrator)
has been working for over 40 years as director and educator at various theaters in Europe and in the US. In the summer of 2003, he was awarded the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit by German Federal President Johannes Rau for his merits in promoting understanding between peoples by way of art. In 1985 he received, as the first non-American, the New York Theater Club Prize for this direction of Brecht's The Jewish Wife. In 1983, he founded the Elysium Theater Company in New York, which he headed as Artistic Director till 1990, when he was called to be the Intendant (Artistic Director) of the Landestheater Mecklenburg, Neustrelitz. Since 1993 he has been Artistic Director of Elysium - between two continents. In 1985, Gregorij von Leïtis founded the Erwin Piscator Award Society, which annually confers the Erwin Piscator Award. Since 1987, Gregorij von Leïtis has been committed to the integration of marginal social groups by way of theater. In 1989, he created the program Theater for the Homeless with the Elysium Theater Company.
Since 1992 Gregorij von Leïtis had been active as guest director, at the State Theater in Linz, and at the State Theater in Bregenz. In 1998 he directed Kafka's A Report to an Academy at London's Bloomsbury Theater, Ullman's opera The Emperor of Atlantis at the Guggenheim Museum (in its acclaimed series Works & Process) and at the Miller Theater in New York, as well as the Italian premiere of Krenek's opera What Price Confidence? The New York Times wrote about The Emperor of Atlantis: "This production provided a chance to hear this deeply moving opera". Corriere della Sera commented on the Rome premiere of Krenek's opera What Price Confidence?: "The deciding factor in conveying the spirit of this chamber opera is the direction of Gregorij von Leïtis".
In 1997, he recited the New York premiere of The Lay of Love and Death of the Cornet Christoph Rilke, one of the last works which the composer Viktor Ullmann was able to finish in the ghetto and concentration camp Theresienstadt, before he was deported to Auschwitz in October 1944 and murdered there. Since then, he has performed this composition for speaker and piano internationally in more than 30 cities, among others in 2010 at the German Embassy in Vilnius / Lithuania. The performance on October 18, 2015 at the Roedde House Museum in Vancouver / Canada was his 50th performance of Ullmann’s Cornet. The New York Times praised the strong, moving performance of the Cornet, and called Gregorij von Leïtis and the accompanying pianist "effective advocates for this music."
Since 1997, Gregorij von Leïtis has staged a number of the works of artists who were persecuted by Hitler's executioners. In 2005, he directed the premiere of Egon Lustgarten's opera Dante in Exile in Bernried, and later in New York. In regard to the Lustgarten premiere, the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: "Rebirth of a forgotten work of opera (...) under Gregorij von Leïtis sensitive direction".
With Michael Lahr, he founded the International Academy for Young Singers and The Lahr von Leïtis Academy & Archive in 1995, whose president he is. In addition, he is a member of the advisory board of the Nietzsche Forum e.V. Munich, of the Viktor Ullmann foundation London, and the Jewish Music Institute London.
