Public lecture by Professor Dr Jürgen Oberschmidt (Heidelberg University of Education)

When we listen to the music of Johann Sebastian Bach, we feel deeply anchored in our culture. As a timeless foundation, his popular all-time hits give us stability even without any explicit prior knowledge, the unshakeable logic and mathematical order of his music promises us structural security, for some his music even becomes a liturgical ritual. In this lecture, we will embark on a search for the "distant Bach" (Wolfgang Hildesheimer). This includes interpretations that attempt to overcome temporal and artistic distances, transformations that interweave or deconstruct his music with contemporary compositions. This leads us into a sonorous, unpredictable connection with the unavailable world: "Liveliness only arises from the acceptance of the unavailable" (Hartmut Rosa). The interplay between availability and unavailability is not only constitutive for music; as a necessary condition for a successful relationship with the world, it permeates our lives as a whole.

After studying at the University of Music, Theatre and Media in Hanover, Jürgen Oberschmidt worked as a teacher of music and German at a grammar school in North Rhine-Westphalia, as a church musician, choirmaster and instrumental teacher at a music school. Since 2010, he has worked as a research assistant and deputy professor at the University of Kassel, followed an appointment to the professorship for music and its didactics at Weingarten University of Education in 2013 and moved to Heidelberg University of Education in 2016. He is Chairman of the International Leo Kestenberg Society, the Baden-Württemberg New Music Network, the Federation of German Music Education Associations, President of the Federal Association of Music Education and Vice President of the German Music Council.

Moderation: Associate Professor Dr Simone Heilgendorff