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. 

The complete schedule follows. For now, we'd like to draw your attention to some of the highlights, organized by Studium Generale.

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. We’ll trace how monogamy has changed and expose how sex myths dampen desire and pleasure. The goal? Claim your pleasure, rewrite your script, and design a relationship that fits who you are today.

Reclaiming Sexuality. Female Artists, Self-sexualization and Strategies of Power - 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?

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

Photograph: Marijn Boeré