Concert for and with Maria Kalesnikava

Friday, April 10, 2026

STUTTGART

7 p.m.

Concert Hall of the HMDK Stuttgart
Urbanstraße 25
70182 Stuttgart

Free admission, reservation recommended

Maria Kalesnikava lived in Stuttgart for 12 years, during which time she contributed to the development of SKAM as a member of its board. Following her studies, she pursued a career as a flutist and cultural manager for many years, before becoming a prominent figure in the Belarusian democracy movement in 2020. Her commitment to freedom, the rule of law and social responsibility resulted in her imprisonment and a lengthy prison sentence.

We are therefore extremely grateful and honoured to announce that Maria Kalesnikava will be making her artistic comeback on stage at this concert. This concert is therefore not only a sign of solidarity, but also a poignant homecoming – back to the place where she received her artistic training, and to an institution that has had a lasting influence on her.

“Sounds of Freedom” is a musical celebration of the power of art to build bridges and inspire hope. Artists from institutions such as SKAM and InterAKT, as well as teachers and students from the HMDK, will come together to create an evening that celebrates humanistic values and artistic excellence.

Following the concert, the HMDK cordially invites you to a reception, which will provide an opportunity for personal interaction.

With welcoming remarks by:

Petra Olschowski, Minister of Science, Research, and the Arts
Marc Gegenfurtner, Head of the Cultural Office of the City of Stuttgart
Christine Fischer, Artistic Director of Musik der Jahrhunderte, Artistic Director of the ECLAT Contemporary Music Festival

Music by:

Konstantin Yaskov, Nikola Lutz, Mayke Nas, Matthias Hermann, and others.

Performed by:

Trio vis-á-vis (Natasha López, Hugo Rannou, Maria Kalesnikava), Viktoriia Vitrenko, Remmy Canedo, Nikola Lutz, Klaus Dreher, Tamara Kurkiewicz, and others.

Reservation: Simone Haas simone.haas@hmdk-stuttgart.de

Cooperating:

Solidarity with Maria Kalesnikava

Monday, November 3, 2025

STUTTGART

9:00 p.m.

Theater Rampe
Rakete
Filderstrasse 47
70180 Stuttgart

Free admission

Maria Kalesnikava, founder of the Stuttgart cultural association INTERAKT, is imprisoned as a political prisoner in Belarus. The evening will be organized by her companions in Stuttgart and will include a conversation with Olga Bubich, a Belarusian essayist currently living in exile in Berlin. She will talk about common myths about Belarus that she encounters in Germany:

How much do we know and how much do we not know about our closest Eastern European neighbor? How do we imagine its history, its linguistic and political situation? To what extent do we rely on memories of the Soviet past and fragmentary media reports to form a picture of who the Belarusians are? Olga shares her experiences and impressions and presents facts and statistics from Belarus' past and present.

Olga Bubich (Belarus/Germany) is an essayist focusing on research into collective memory and Europe's traumatic past, a visual artist with two published photo books, and a lecturer with over 15 years of teaching experience.

With contributions from:

Yauhenia Dougaya

Nikola Lutz

Natasha López

Viktoriia Vitrenko

Saturday, March 8

ESSLINGEN

7 pm

Münster St. Paul
Esslingen

Concert for Kalesnikava on International Women's Day as part of the ton-art festival 

Maryja Kalesnikava, who graduated as a flautist from the Stuttgart University of Music and was active here as a musician and cultural manager, but since 2018 has also been increasingly active again in her home city of Minsk, became internationally known in 2020 as one of the three female figureheads of the democracy movement in Belarus.

Initially abducted and disappeared for days during the violent suppression of the demonstrations, then brought to trial, sentenced to eleven years in prison for her opposition activities, abused in prison, transferred to a civilian hospital in a terminal condition and returned to the camp early after successful treatment, she showed no sign of life from March 2023 until her father was able to visit her in prison in November 2024.

This concert is for her.

Works for voices, cello, organ, flutes and percussion by Lachenmann, Blecharz, Hermann, Nas and Dreher

with Natasha López, Frank Wörner, Felix Muntwiler, Albrecht Imbescheid, the Trio vis-à-vis and the Percussion Ensemble Stuttgart.

Program:
Helmut Lachenmann (1935) temA (1968)
Trio vis-à-vis: Natasha López - voice, Petra Arman - flute, Hugo Rannou - cello

Wojciech Blecharz (1981) blacksnowfalls (2014)  

Aleksandra Nawrocka 

Lecture

Matthias Hermann (1960) Echo 3 - Studie für fünf Schlagzeuge (2024, UA) 

Mayke Nas (1972)  Cinderella (2018) 
Tamara Kurkiewicz 



Klaus Sebastian Dreher (*1967) AVE MARIJA - Musik für Kalesnikava (2025, UA)

Performers:
Natasha López, Frank Wörner - voice
Hugo Rannou - violoncello
Felix Muntwiler - organ
Albrecht Imbescheid, Petra Arman, Maren Dreher, Julia Steinbächer - flute
Percussion Ensemble Stuttgart: Anna Fiveiska, Tamara Kurkiewicz, Seongyeon Kong, Aleksandra Nawrocka, Xia Yuan - percussion
Trio vis-à-vis: Natasha López - voice, Petra Arman - flute, Hugo Rannou - violoncello