Sonus Feminæ #8: SEARCHING FOR JUDITH SHAKESPEARE

The focus is on Kaija Saariaho's ‘The Tempest Songbook’ in a special arrangement for historical instruments – a German premiere. Saariaho's fragile, floating sound language, her subtle combination of text, breath and resonance, forms the starting point for the evening. Her music unfolds spaces in which time does not flow linearly, but overlaps.

From here, the view expands backwards: works by Elisabetta Gamberini, Elizabeth Turner, Mrs Philharmonica and Lady Dering enter into dialogue with Saariaho's sound world. Their music does not appear as a historical footnote, but as a living present – independent, powerful, poetic.

The intellectual impulse behind the programme goes back to Virginia Woolf, who imagines a sister of William Shakespeare in ‘A Room of One's Own’. While this character still embodies the tragic silencing of female genius in Woolf's work, we understand her in the concert ‘Searching for Judith Shakespeare’ as a sign of a new beginning. Here, Judith does not stand for loss, but for possibility – as an artistic compass for rediscovery.

The programme asks how supposed silence can become audible: where do these voices continue to sound in secret? How do they unfold their resonance over centuries?

Texts by female contemporaries condense the evening into a scenic space in which music and language mirror each other. Past and present do not stand in opposition to each other – they interpenetrate. In these interstices, new perspectives on authorship, sound and presence emerge.

With the ensemble Cité des Dames & Guests:

Andrea Conangla – soprano
Jonathan Boudevin – baritone
Miako Klein – recorder & violin
Mari Sawada – violin
Prisca Stalmarski – violin
Karen Lorenz – viola
Lea Rahel Bader – cello
Raivis Misjuns – double bass
Martin Steuber – lute
Jia Lim – harpsichord
Yalda Zamani – conductor

Director: Iñigo Giner Miranda
Dramaturgy: Guillem Borràs Garriga

Dates:

• 9 May 2026, 7:30 p.m.
  
• 10 May 2026, 6:00 p.m.
  

Location: Villa Elisabeth, Invalidenstraße 3, 10115 Berlin
Tickets: €18 (€12 reduced)