One of the founders of Akamus (as it is affectionately known in its native city), the violinist Stefan Mai, confirms that until the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989, “there was no group that approached early music in this way. Although there were four music schools in the GDR, none of them were interested in this issue”. From the outset, the Akademie was run on the democratic principle of self-management and the absence of personalised administration, partly justifying the governmental distrust. According to Mai, “the concept of team work with democratic bases, that is, without a director or a guide, was new and provocative at the time. This characteristic, together with the ideal of original sound that was barely known, was enough reason to create scepticism, especially in official circles”.
|
Folkert Uhde: “We always try to open new doors”
|
The origins of the Akamus date back to the year 1982, when young members from different orchestras in East Berlin began to meet as a result of their interest in and love for early music. Like all beginnings, Folkert Uhde, an ex member and present manager of the group, has fond memories of these meetings, which he nostalgically recalls: “We began with a group of young orchestral musicians and students at the beginning of the 1980’s. We met after official work hours to play chamber music. Immediately we became interested in the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and his contemporaries”. In 1985 Stefan Mai was able to attend the legendary Innsbrucker Sommerakademie in Austria, where he made contact with colleagues from the West, allowing him to enter the world of original instruments that he had only dreamt of until then.
The group also became more coherent by establishing a name that precisely reflected the working spirit and aims. For Uhde: “the relationship between our name and the so-called Music academies of Frederick the Great’s time is interesting. During that period young and ambitious professional musicians met outside work hours to perform the music that really interested them”. The origins of Akamus thus come from the word “Academy” and the musical life of eighteenth-century Berlin. (Royal Academy of Arts) from 1798 to 1801. But Akamus makes this definition a reality: “Everyone has the chance to develop within the group. There is no despotic leader to obey. Instead each member progressively takes on more responsibilities, such as the selection of works, the preparation of a program or the performance of instrumental solos. This confirms that the greater the responsibility, the better one’s personal capacity. The fact that the same group has been working together for over two decades has also played an important role. Over the years there have been times when it was not known for certain whether the group would continue, but it emerged from these crisis with more strength than ever”, affirms Folkert Uhde. For his part, Stefan Mai assures that prior to the group’s professional period “membership of the Akademie was a personal choice, something we did in our free time during which our own musical ideas were put to the test”.
|
|
|
|