Organ & Lyrics with Alexandru Bulucz

Alexandru Bulucz early experiences of language loss, migration, uprooting and cultural tension form the resonance chamber of his poetry – and at the same time its poetic powerhouse. Bulucz now writes in German, and his work has won several awards.


Bulucz's poetry tirelessly questions the beginning of storytelling – where home was lost and language becomes the only remaining home, the search for a place in words. His poetry is never merely autobiographical – it is both reflection and dialogue. Bulucz does not shy away from commenting on his own poems in essays, critically questioning them and revealing their layers of language.

His tone is elevated, often solemn, yet sensual and concrete. The result is what could be described as archaeological language work: a cross-border poetic process that oscillates between memory and myth, between sound and meaning.

His poetry echoes influences ranging from Franz Kafka to Mircea Eliade. And yet his voice remains his own – serious, tentative, yet open to the sounds of the world here and now. Like Paul Celan, to whom he refers, Bulucz also understands poetry as a form of handshake: an offer of compassion, a tender resistance to the coldness of circumstances.

In the Luisenkirche, his texts meet works by great organ composers, played by organist Jack Day, as well as his improvisations.

Contributors:

• Poetry: Alexandru Bulucz
  
• Organ: Jack Day
  
• Curator: Thomas Wohlfahrt
  

Programme – Organ music:

Part 1 – Worldviews
Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750)
Prelude in E minor, BWV 548

Part 2 – Mourning and consolation
Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
Study in C major, Op. 56 No. 1
Jan Pieterszoon Sweelinck (1562–1621)
Psalm 116: Ich hebb' den Heer lief

Part 3 – Hope
Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788)
Sonata in G minor – 1st movement


Alexandru Bulucz is a poet, translator, editor and critic. He was born in Alba Iulia, Romania, in 1987. He spent the first 13 years of his life there before emigrating to Germany with his family in 2000. He attended a sports boarding school and almost became a professional basketball player. In 2008, he began a master's degree in German studies and general and comparative literature at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main, studying under Werner Hamacher, among others, which he completed in 2016.

Jack Day has been cantor at the Luisenkirche Berlin-Charlottenburg since 2017, where he oversaw the design of the new Reil organ and developed the church into a venue for radio broadcasts of church services. In 2024, he realised a concert series sponsored by the Berlin Senate Administration featuring organ concerts by C.P.E. Bach and Handel. His projects include solo concerts on historical instruments, performances at the Babylon Cinema in Berlin and guest appearances at renowned festivals such as the Organ Cinema Festival in Lubin, the Philharmonic Hall in Gdańsk and Trinity College Cambridge.

Thomas Wohlfahrt, born in Eisenach in 1956, studied German language and literature and musicology in Halle/Saale and worked at the Academy of Sciences of the GDR in East Berlin from 1983 to 1988. After leaving the GDR in 1988, he founded and directed the Literaturwerkstatt Berlin from 1991 and, since 2016, the Haus für Poesie, as well as the Poesiefestival Berlin, the ZEBRA Poetry Film Festival and open mike. He initiated and directed major international projects such as Literatur Express Europa 2000 and the global website lyrikline.org.


Sunday, 7 September 2025, 7 p.m.
Evangelische Luisenkirche am Gierkeplatz
10585 Berlin-Charlottenburg

U-7 Richard-Wagner-Platz / U2 Bismarckstraße
Admission: €10, concessions €8 (for children under 14, refugees, Berlinpass holders free admission)