In 2005, Iranian composer Nader Mashayekhi was asked to lead the Tehran Symphony Orchestra. He knew the weak position of Western classical and contemporary music in Iran would make this a difficult task. But he took on the challenge, and after having…

From 1982 to 1992 Frank Scheffer worked with John Cage on many different occasions, which resulted in a unique archive of historical audio-visual material. Based on this unique archive, including interviews, musical performances and images of…

Since 1972 the 12 Cellists of the Berliner Philharmoniker have been a prominent institution in international musical life. Whether they’re playing classical music, jazz, tango or avant-garde, listeners around the world are invariably fascinated by…

During the eleventh edition of the famous Easter Festival the Mariinsky Orchestra is travelling across the vastness of Russia by train. In this documentary we will follow the orchestra on this musical journey and on its various concert stations. By…

Rolando Villazón as director and Nemorino: these tidings alone were enough to unleash a worldwide "run" on tickets to the Baden-Baden 2012 Pentecost-holiday opera. After his directorial debut in 2011 ("Werther", Lyon) the Mexican tenor now takes it a…

“The world is a haunted house and Helnwein is our tour guide through it” — Sean Penn Gottfried Helnwein & The Dreaming Child” is a wonderful look at the titular Austrian photorealist painter. It is both a visual feast and landmark union of artistic…

The Orchestra Mozart has been founded in Bologna (Italy) ten years ago by Master Claudio Abbado. The Orchestra brings together the best classical music performers in the world by mixing young promises and well established solo artists. Among them…

It might be an interesting project to find out just how many movie scores of the past decades feature at least one of Cole Porter’s songs. Then again, there might just be too many to count. Either way: the world-famous American composer and lyricist…

Portrait of a film: Suzanne, aged only 15, collects sexual encounters. Her father, whom she admires, suddenly leaves the conjugal home. Now living with her half-mad mother and her despotic brother, Suzanne decides to flee. She engages in a loveless…

Portrait of a film: Manuela, a single mother, accidentally loses hes 17 year old son and starts searching for the father of the child. The latter lives as a transvestite prostitute in Barcelona. The film offers a gallery of women’s portraits - nurses…