Music in total darkness with German tuba and piano duo

The flashy fireworks welcoming 2018 have died down and it's time to turn off the lights and experience music in total darkness as the Goethe-Institut Philippinen brings back Concert in the Dark. Happening this January 17, 2018, 7:00 PM at the Aldaba Reictal Hall (UP Theater Complex), University of the Philippines in Diliman, Quezon City, this edition features tuba player Andreas Martin Hofmeir and pianist Barbara Schmelz. Admission to the concert is free on a first-come, first-served basis.

Tuba player Andreas Martin Hofmeir is a professor at the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg and the founder of the popular Bavarian band LaBrassBanda. He is also multiple award-winning cabaret performer and has won the Città di Porcia International Tuba Competition in 2004. He has played with the Bruckner-Orchester Linz under Dennis Russell Davies until 2008.

Hailing from the Universität Mozarteum Salzburg and the Royal Academy of Music in Copenhagen, organist Barbara Schmelz heads the concert series Musktage Waging and works as regional cantor in the church music department of the Diocese of Passau. Her broad musical spectrum ranges from concertante and liturgical organ playing to singing, choir and ensemble conducting to improvisation, whereby the connection of music and liturgy plays an emphasized role.

The duo of Andreas Martin Hofmeir and Barbara Schmelz will perform a program billed as European Journey that includes music by Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann, and Richard Wagner.

The first ever Concert in the Dark performance that featured violinist Mirijam Contzen held at Fort Santiago in Intramuros back in September 2015 was a phenomenal success that she put up an additional performance due to the huge number of people who turned up for the event.

Concert in the Dark is part of a series of musical engagements organized by the Goethe-Institut in Southeast Asia called anders hören or “listen differently”. This annual offering is meant to introduce the audiences in the region to not-so-common forms of appreciating music.