Matthias Burkert
Matthias Burkert works with Pina Bausch from 1979. He is an important advisor on questions concerning the music in her pieces. From 1995 he works together with Andreas Eisenschneider.
Information
1953 | born in Duisburg (Germany) |
1974 | studies piano, singing and trumpet in Wuppertal (Germany) |
since 1979 | Musical Collaborator at Tanztheater Wuppertal (since 1995 together with Andreas Eisenschneider) |
Biography
Matthias Burkert
was born 1953 in Duisburg, and started piano lessons at the age of six. In 1974 he began studying piano, with trumpet and singing, at the Wuppertal campus of Cologne’s Hochschule für Musik und Tanz. Above all it was Professor Harald Bojé’s integrated approach to teaching piano which spoke to him. Matthias Burkert had a natural, uninhibited relationship to instruments; from an early age improvisation was his great passion, not just on the piano. His attitude to music was playful and experimental.
An all-round talent
He first saw a piece by Pina Bausch in 1975, in Wuppertal, her version of Igor Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Although Burkert had no affinity with ballet, the undiluted humanity of Pina Bausch’s contemporary dance language left a deep impression on him. After completing his degree, in 1978 he took up a lecturing post in piano teaching at his college. He had already become musical director of the children’s and youth theatre in Wuppertal in 1976, a position he retained till 2001. Alongside this he gave private piano lessons. Pina Bausch took him on in 1979, initially as the répétiteur for their daily training sessions. Soon, however, his role changed. Pina Bausch was in the process of redefining not only the thematic and choreographic aspects of dance but also its musical dimension and needed help researching music, with dramaturgical questions around music and with generating narrative arcs. This was still technically challenging at the time. Finding unusual music was also difficult. Burkert combed record shops in Wuppertal and beyond, contacted radio archives and private collectors. Sometimes up to four tape players were running simultaneously during performances to ensure rapid changeovers.
Trial and error
Burkert’s first collaboration with Pina Bausch was Bandoneon, in 1980. She had brought back a wealth of material from a South-American tour which needed sorting out. Where necessary Burkert also composed pieces of his own. The extensive tours and resulting coproductions changed the musical work. During research on location each time new musical horizons were opened up. The trick here was to allow the musical soul of a country to be heard without becoming folkloristic.
The dances and scenes were almost always created independently of the music, which was added later. Here, as with dance theatre generally, a persistent process of trial and error was required. Pina Bausch frequently asked Burkert to replace all the rehearsal music with completely new pieces. Some music stood the test, at other times a completely new perspective was generated.
Matthias Burkert was part of the rehearsal process from the start, collecting music, sorting it according to character and atmosphere or with particular dancers in mind. Pina Bausch repeatedly integrated him into her pieces, sometimes with musical appearances, and together with him she controlled the musical temperature of the shows as they unfolded.
In 1995 he was joined by Andreas Eisenschneider. Today they complement each other, an experienced team taking responsibility for the music. The pair were jointly credited for musical direction on Wim Wenders’ Film Pina.
Text by Norbert Servos
Translated by Steph Morris
Gallery
Portrait of Matthias Burkert
Photo: Ulli Weiss © Pina Bausch Foundation
Premieres
Piece | Keuschheitslegende (Legend of Chastity) |
Date | 13 December 1979 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | 1980 – A Piece by Pina Bausch |
Date | 18 May 1980 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Set design assistant | Gerda Raichle |
Dance | Anne Marie Benati |
Anne Martin | |
Arthur Rosenfeld | |
Beatrice Libonati | |
Ed Kortlandt | |
Hans Dieter Knebel | |
Heide Tegeder | |
Isabel Ribas Serra | |
Jan Minařík | |
Janusz Subicz | |
Jean Laurent Sasportes | |
Josephine Ann Endicott | |
Lutz Förster | |
Malou Airaudo | |
Mechthild Großmann | |
Meryl Tankard | |
Nazareth Panadero | |
Vivienne Newport | |
Musician | Arthur Sockel |
Matthias Burkert | |
Special performer | Hans Günter Witt |
Stagehand | Heinz Czyganowski |
Lighting | Siegfried Schuchmann |
Make-up | Heinz Dildey |
Sound | Helmut Schoth |
Ballet master | Dominique Mercy |
Jean Cébron | |
Technical direction | Rolf Bachmann |
Leitung Kostüm | Renate Eichberg |
Workshop management | Leo Haase |
Stage manager | Peter Lütke |
Props | Gerd Klann |
Sportler:in | Max Walther |
Source of cast | Evening leaflet for “1980 – A Piece by Pina Bausch” by Pina Bausch with Tanztheater Wuppertal in in Wuppertal, May 18, 1980 |
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Piece | Bandoneon |
Date | 21 December 1980 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Walzer |
Date | 17 June 1982 |
Venue | Koninklijk Theater Carré Amsterdam Amsterdam Netherlands |
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Piece | Nelken (Carnations) |
Date | 30 December 1982 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Auf dem Gebirge hat man ein Geschrei gehört (On the Mountain a Cry was heard) |
Date | 13 May 1984 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Two Cigarettes in the Dark |
Date | 31 March 1985 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Dance | Bénédicte Billiet |
Dominique Duszynski | |
Dominique Mercy | |
Francis Viet | |
Héléna Pikon | |
Jakob Haahr Andersen | |
Jan Minařík | |
Jean-François Duroure | |
Josephine Ann Endicott | |
Kyomi Ichida | |
Actor | Mechthild Großmann |
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Piece | Viktor |
Date | 14 May 1986 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Ahnen |
Date | 21 March 1987 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Palermo Palermo |
Date | 17 December 1989 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Tanzabend II |
Date | 27 April 1991 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Das Stück mit dem Schiff (The Piece with the Ship) |
Date | 16 January 1993 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Ein Trauerspiel |
Date | 12 February 1994 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Danzón |
Date | 13 May 1995 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Dance | Aida Vainieri |
Andrey Berezin | |
Antonio Carallo | |
Barbara Kaufmann | |
Cristiana Morganti | |
Daphnis Kokkinos | |
Dominique Mercy | |
Jan Minařík | |
Marigia Maggipinto | |
Regina Advento | |
Actor | Mechthild Großmann |
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Piece | Nur Du (Only You) |
Date | 11 May 1996 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Der Fensterputzer (The Window Washer) |
Date | 12 February 1997 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Masurca Fogo |
Date | 4 April 1998 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | O Dido |
Date | 10 April 1999 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Wiesenland |
Date | 5 May 2000 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Água |
Date | 12 May 2001 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | For the Children of yesterday, today and tomorrow |
Date | 25 April 2002 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Nefés |
Date | 21 March 2003 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Rough Cut |
Date | 15 April 2005 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Vollmond (Full Moon) |
Date | 11 May 2006 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | Bamboo Blues |
Date | 18 May 2007 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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Piece | 'Sweet Mambo' |
Date | 30 May 2008 |
Venue | Schauspielhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
Dance | Aida Vainieri |
Andrey Berezin | |
Daphnis Kokkinos | |
Héléna Pikon | |
Julie Anne Stanzak | |
Julie Shanahan | |
Michael Strecker | |
Nazareth Panadero | |
Regina Advento |
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Piece | "... como el musguito en la piedra, ay si, si, si ..." (Like Moss on the Stone) |
Date | 12 June 2009 |
Venue | Opernhaus Wuppertal Wuppertal Germany |
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