Helmut Oehring
Music theatre / voice / staged performance
Music theatre, voice, double bass and artistic trust since 2008.
- Double bassist
- Vocalist
- Speaker
- Stage figure
One of the major artistic constellations in Aleksander Gabryś’s archive: music theatre, speaking body, double bass, memory and trust.
Music theatre, staged concert, solo double bass, voice, speech, acting, ensemble, orchestra, electronics and playback.
Archival constellation of works, roles, staged performances, recordings and works in preparation.
Documentation, performance and archival reconstruction
The Tower is prepared for future video, audio, photographs, score references and performance materials from the Oehring collaboration.
Music theatre / image / pending archive
Image and pending materials
FinsterHERZ oder Orfeo17
Helmut Oehring / David Moss, Potsdam production context
First available image for the Helmut Oehring Tower, connected with FinsterHERZ oder Orfeo17 and the Potsdam production context.
- Performer
Aleksander Gabryś: Kurtz - double bass + voice. Further photo, audio and video documentation is pending.
Context
Collaboration, roles, and traces since 2008
Connections
Connected works and traces
Since 2008, Aleksander Gabryś has worked closely with Helmut Oehring in music theatre, staged concert forms and solo works that expand the double bass into voice, acting, memory and physical presence. The collaboration began with Gunten for Ensemble Phoenix Basel, where Gabryś performed Kraus, after Robert Walser’s Jakob von Gunten: not only as a double bassist, but as a speaking and acting stage figure in costume.
Over the following years, Oehring’s works placed Gabryś in increasingly complex scenic and musical situations: as solo double bassist, vocalist, speaker, dramatic figure and bearer of autobiographical memory. From Angelus Novus III through AscheMOND and FinsterHERZ oder Orfeo17 to the later solo works UmBruch and Inferno MAPPA version, the relationship became one of the clearest examples of artistic trust in Gabryś’s archive.
Oehring later described Gabryś warmly as his "beliebtesten Pole". The phrase is held here not as a slogan, but as a sign of immediate artistic understanding: the kind of trust in which a performer can become voice, body, memory and dramatic identity inside the work.
Selected works / projects
Gunten, 2008. Music theatre by Helmut Oehring for Ensemble Phoenix Basel, after Robert Walser’s Jakob von Gunten. Aleksander Gabryś performed Kraus: double bass, spoken and acted role. The performance date known from the concert list is 16 October 2008; the role placed him in costume among actors, with physical and dramatic interaction on stage.
Foxfire 2, recorded 2009 / released on Bassolo. Oehring’s solo work was recorded by Aleksander Gabryś for the Bassolo album, where it appears as part of the recorded foundation of solo double-bass repertoire.
Angelus Novus III (déjà-vu/entendu), 2016. For solo double bass/vocalist, septet and orchestra. Premiere: 14 June 2016, Konzerthaus Freiburg. Aleksander Gabryś: solo double bass + vocals / speaker / singer / sign soloist. The work contains autobiographical and memory material connected with Gabryś.
AscheMOND oder The Fairy Queen, 2017. Large-scale work for soloists, choir, baroque ensemble, orchestra and live electronics. Aleksander Gabryś: solo double bass, performed in the Wuppertal production.
FinsterHERZ oder Orfeo17, 2017. Staged concert after Claudio Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo and Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness. Premiere: 30 September 2017, ARENA Potsdam. Aleksander Gabryś: Kurtz - double bass + voice, in the Kammerakademie Potsdam context with Antonello Manacorda.
UmBruch, 2024. For solo double bass and playback/tape. Performed once by Aleksander Gabryś in a 2024 solo recital; documentation, audio and video are pending.
Inferno MAPPA version, 2022/2024. For double bass/vocal. Planned and not yet premiered by Aleksander Gabryś; the entry remains in preparation.