Association
Founded in 1998, the association has since been dedicated to preserving the memory of the world-famous Norwegian composer, whose biography is closely linked to Leipzig and the city's musical tradition.
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Your benefits
- Discount on all events
- Active participation in the life of the association
- Free subscription to the association's newsletter
Board
President
Prof. Dr. Helmut Loos
Vice President
Prof. Dietmar Nawroth
Treasurer
Sean Reilly
Members
PD Birgit Heise, Pia Mann, Ursula Nawroth, Dr. Joachim Reisaus, Prof. Hanns-Martin Schreiber
Honorary President
Prof. Dr. Hella Brock †
Staff
Management
Christoph Siems
Staff member
Thomas Stein
Honorary members
- Prof. Hella Brock †
- Ina Adler
- Prof. Dr. Herbert Blomstedt
- Günter Neubert †
- Prof. Patrick Dinslage
- Dres. Gudula Neidert-Buech and Rudolf Neidert
- Dr. Joachim Reisaus
Goals
The association was founded in 1998 with the aim of establishing a memorial and meeting place in honour of Edvard Grieg in the former – and, since 2014, once again current – home of the C. F. Peters music publishing house at Talstraße 10.
On 7 November 2005, the memorial and meeting place was ceremonially inaugurated, marking the achievement of one of the association's main goals after almost seven years of dedicated work.
The path to realising one of the most important goals of the association was not always smooth. "There were difficulties to overcome and hurdles to clear. I would like to thank everyone involved for their constant commitment and dedication. Without their help, we would not have been able to inaugurate our meeting place in 2005. Special thanks go to the Royal Norwegian Embassy in Berlin, to VNG - Verbundnetz Gas AG Leipzig, to the Royal Norwegian Honorary Consulate General in Leipzig and to the City of Leipzig. They were and remain indispensable partners to us," said Prof. Dr. Hella Brock, then president of the association and today its honorary president, on the occasion of the ceremonial inauguration.
The opening was both an occasion for great joy and a moment to set new goals. These consist above all in bringing the Grieg Meeting Place to life and in preserving the memory of the Norwegian composer, cultivating it and making it accessible to a broad public.
In addition to continuous opening hours, this also means regularly held events. The range extends from concerts and lectures to seminars and readings.
But Talstraße 10 is not only a place to encounter Grieg and his music; it is also a place of encounter between Norway and Germany. The Central Germany regional group of the German-Norwegian Friendship Society (DNF) regularly uses the premises for its meetings.
Thanks to a generous donation, the meeting place has, since 2019, owned an original portrait of Grieg by Eilif Peterssen (1890), which has hung in the music salon of the meeting place ever since.
Since the summer of 2020, a grand piano by the firm Steinway (built in 1901) has stood in the rooms of the Grieg Meeting Place, making an authentic Grieg sound possible.
Chronicle
2019
In March 2019, after long efforts, we were finally able to complete the purchase of the Grieg portrait by Eilif Peterssen. With it, the association acquired its first original piece, which we have proudly presented in our music salon ever since. At the summer festival in May, the Oslo Brigademusikk military band was our guest and gave our members a wonderful reception. In our regular concert programme, too, we promoted German-Norwegian cultural exchange with concerts by the Grieg Quartet Leipzig, led by the Norwegian first violinist Elisabeth Dingstad, and the Gyldfeldt Quartet, led by the Norwegian first violinist August Magnusson. Another highlight was the concert by Ryoma Takagi, winner of the 2018 International Grieg Piano Competition.
2018
The year 2018 was entirely dedicated to our namesake, celebrating the 175th Grieg anniversary. While in Norway a nationwide TV programme featuring all of the composer's works was broadcast on 15 June – Grieg's birthday – we took the celebration as an opportunity to present ourselves to the public with a new design. We also expanded our concert programme. For a whole week we invited audiences to concerts (including at Leipzig's Old Town Hall and the University Church of St. Pauli), and prominent guests attended, among them the Norwegian Ambassador H.E. Petter Ølberg. The Leipzig University Orchestra also made it possible for us to perform Grieg's famous piano concerto for once. But our annual programme offered many highlights too, such as the concert series with students at the HMT Leipzig, the lecture by board member Dr. Joachim Reisaus at the LOFFT theatre, or the ballet interlude by Leipzig Opera in the music salon of the meeting place.
2017
A special highlight of the 2017 calendar year was the debut concert of the Leipzig Grieg Quartet, led by the Norwegian first violinist Elisabeth Dingstad. The four Gewandhaus musicians naturally played Grieg's only completed string quartet, in G minor. Our honorary president Hella Brock handed over her private library to the Edvard Grieg Research Centre. In 2017 the 75th anniversary of the death of Henri Hinrichsen, the former head of Edition Peters, also fell. Board member Dr. Joachim Reisaus commemorated his eventful life with a lecture.
2016
The year 2016 was eventful, especially beyond the regular concert programme. In February, the Edvard Grieg Research Centre, headed by board member Prof. Dr. Patrick Dinslage, moved into rooms at the Institute of Musicology of Leipzig University. As a result, there is now also physical proximity between the museum-based cultivation of Grieg's legacy and current Grieg research at the university. In March, our long-standing staff member Wolfgang Golzsch retired. He was succeeded by Mai Anne Nguyen and Christoph Siems, two students of Leipzig University. In October 2016, the 7th International Edvard Grieg Congress, with participants from 8 countries, also took place at the university. The Grieg Meeting Place hosted a reception and delighted the international Grieg enthusiasts.