Postclassical Ensemble Presents

Berlin in Lights: Cabaret, Jazz, and Radical Theater in the Weimar Republic

Terrace Theater

Led by Music Director, Angel Gil-Ordóñez, PostClassical Ensemble is Washington, DC’s leading chamber orchestra.

Wed. Mar. 11, 2026

  • Wed. Mar. 11, 2026 7:30p.m.

Program

Drew Lichtenberg, guest curator
Melissa Wimbish, soprano
PostClassical Ensemble conducted by Angel Gil-Ordóñez

Berlin in the 1920s was a hotbed of innovation, incorporating elements from points west as well as east: Duke Ellington and the Bauhaus, Shostakovich and Leninist fight songs. The Threepenny Opera, by Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill, is one of the most famous examples of the Weimar Republic’s artistic ferment. However, this landmark collaboration grew out of cosmopolitan influences, a newfound spirit of openness, and radical politics. In March 2026, PostClassical Ensemble will explore this endlessly fascinating period, including remarkable yet little-known works such as Kurt Weill’s Oil Music, his first composition for the theater, racy cabaret songs and songs of political protest by Friedrich Holländer, Mischa Spoliansky, and Hanns Eisler. The concert will end with memorials to a culture cut short: the songs Weill wrote in exile, classics of the Broadway stage and American songbook, and Shostakovich’s film score to The New Babylon, the Soviet film about the Paris Commune.

  • Arnold Schoenberg: Selections from Pierrot Lunaire
  • Kurt Weill: Oil Music
  • Weill: Berlin im Licht/Hosannah Rockefeller from Happy End
  • Friedrich Holländer: Oh! How We Wish That We Were Kids Again
  • Mischa Spoliansky: Masculine-Feminine
  • Holländer: Chuck Out the Men!
  • Weill: Pirate Jenny and Alabama Song from The Threepenny Opera
  • Hanns Eisler: Abortion is Illegal
  • Eisler: Song of the Moldau
  • Weill: Bilbao Song
  • Weill: Speak Low
  • Weill: My Ship
  • Dmitri Shostakovich: Excerpt from The New Babylon, performed with projected film

Terms and Conditions

All events and artists subject to change without prior notice.

This event is an external rental presented in coordination with the Trump Kennedy Center Campus Rentals Office and is not produced by the Trump Kennedy Center.

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