How to Conduct Life

How do you conduct life in a world full of contradictions, desires, and expectations? During the festival How to Conduct Life, musicians, scientists and artists share their perspectives through performances, talks and workshops inspired by the extraordinary life of Alma Mahler. Remembered as “the wife of”, this festival will shed new light on her story and will inspire you to rethink relationships, gender roles, and female performativity. 

Above all, it will be a night filled with music! Learn how to conduct from Anne-Maartje Lemereis, hear Charmaine Borg and Elizabeth Falade, share insights on sexuality, identity and power, or have a dance with queer performer Lola Lasagna. The evening culminates in a moving performance of Gustav Mahler’s Eighth Symphony by the North Netherlands Symphony Orchestra.

Click here for the full line-up and tickets!

Talk (ENG) | Love, Sex and Power | Charmaine Borg

How have notions of monogamous relationships shifted from Alma’s time to ours? Which myths still influence our beliefs about sex? And most importantly, what is a woman’s position in all of this? In this talk, we will reconsider Alma Mahler as a woman carving out space in a male-dominated world rather than a caricature of narcissism.  Psychosexologist Charmaine Borg reveals how women’s erotic agency was constrained in the days of Alma and Gustav’s marriage, and what remains of those constraints today. 

Talk (ENG) | Reclaiming Sexuality | Elizabeth Falade

In what ways do female artists challenge gender and artistic conventions? Ethnomusicologist and DJ Elizabeth Falade explores the bold ways female artists use self-sexualization and performance to take control in the music industry. From lyrics to visual imagery and public personas, they’ll unpack how women navigate tensions between empowerment, objectification, and agency, claiming their space in a male-dominated world. How do these artists break barriers and redefine power on their own terms?

Talkshow (NL/ENG)| Alma Mahler femme fatale then, feminist icon today | Thea Stamhuis

Composer and music theorist Tea Stamhuis will revisit the stories surrounding Alma’s life with a contemporary perspective. She will speak with experts about the labels associated with Alma. Would she be seen as a femme fatale if she were alive today? And can the label “the wife of” also be interpreted as a feminist statement?

Concert | Mahler’s Eighth Symphony | North Netherlands Orchestra 

‘Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound. There are no more human voices, only planets and suns revolving in their orbits’. So wrote Gustav Mahler. In the summer of 1906, Mahler experienced a vision. Overwhelmed by this sudden burst of inspiration, he composed his monumental Eighth Symphony. Mahler often created large-scale works, but his Eighth Symphony, frequently called the 'Symphony of a Thousand', is one of the most iconic examples of his grand approach.

A staggering 400 performers are required, which is why it is rarely performed. The NNO (Netherlands Symphony Orchestra) is bringing this monumental work to Northern Netherlands, collaborating with ensembles such as the North Netherlands Concert Choir, the Netherlands Concert Choir, and a cast of eight international soloists. All of this is under the direction of the NNO’s honorary conductor, Antony Hermus. As impressive as the scale of the ensemble is the way Mahler weaves each element into a rich musical structure. With an unparalleled palette of timbres and expression, he evokes a symphonic landscape that reaches toward a higher dimension.

Workshops and Performances | Songs of Life, Conducting, Screen Printing, Bed Time Stories and much more!
Ever wanted to learn how to conduct? Now is your chance to pick up the baton (literally), because Composer Laureate of the Netherlands Anne-Maartje Lemereis will show you the ins and outs of directing an orchestra. Ever wondered what stories unfold between the sheets? Step into Bedtime Stories, where writer Willemijn van de Walle and local voices bring poetry, activism, and dreams to life on an oversized bed. 

>> See the full program.

Organized together with Noord Nederlands Orkest, Noorderpoort, Prins Claus Conservatorium, Studium Generale and Usva Cultureel Studentencentrum.
 

Photograph: Marijn Boeré