AWhen the former Gewandhaus viola player Henry Schneider was diagnosed with cancer when he retired in 2020, a doctor advised him to only do things that he enjoys in the future. That’s why, despite the surgery and strenuous therapies, he continued to organize his legendary festival “Stelzenfestspiele bei Reuth” in Vogtland and also made music elsewhere – even as a patient at the National Center for Tumor Diseases (NCT) in Dresden. Schneider played there at the bed of fellow sufferers and drew strength from it himself: “I’m back in life,” he now concludes at a difficult time, including a relapse in autumn 2021.
“A cancer diagnosis changes your life in one fell swoop. We are completely helpless, drifting like a small ship on the high seas and don’t know where the journey is going, »says Schneider in the trailer for his new project. On May 7th, he wants to give a benefit concert for the “pilot program” of the local tumor center together with proven “agricultural machine musicians” from stilts and new musical accompanists in the Comödie Dresden. The pilots should help to let patients find a calm harbor in stormy times. “They provide information, have time for a personal conversation and can accompany you to examinations and doctor’s talks if you wish,” reports NCT spokeswoman Anna Kraft.
So far, the pilot program has been financed solely by donations. So that it can continue, every euro is needed. While it was used in the pilot phase for patients with so-called sarcomas, from now on it will be open to all cancer patients. For him, the bad time in the hospital was also a time to pause, says Schneider. “Otherwise I’m always in action, suddenly I had time to listen.” That’s how the idea came about “to bring the sounds of the hospital, the acoustic dimension of cancer therapy, to the stage and turn it into music”. The concert is entitled “Bars Against Cancer” and, in addition to music and noises from everyday hospital life, will also offer an atavar on the piano and hits from baroque to jazz.
The trailer already makes it clear what the listener can expect. Anyone who has ever experienced the sound performance “Agricultural Machinery Symphony” at the “Stelzenfestspiele” knows the almost exuberant wealth of ideas of the musicians around sound artists Erwin Stache and Henry Schneider. This time, among other things, a surgical robot will pluck the strings of a cello. The audience should not only experience rare sounds and instruments such as Schneider’s nyckelharpa and his singing saw, but also gain an insight into the future of cancer surgery.
According to Anna Kraft, the tumor center also wants to follow current developments in cancer research on its musical journey of discovery. The guests could learn how a data glove not only helps when playing the piano, but can also be used in cancer surgery in the future. Frank Fitzek, head of an excellence cluster at the TU Dresden, thinks last but not least of artificial intelligence. “In the future, the developments should also help surgeons to operate on tumors with even more precision or to work together in telemedical applications over long distances,” adds Stefanie Speidel, head of a department at the NCT in Dresden.
The concert format “Tacts Against Cancer” was originally developed at the NCT Heidelberg. The listener himself becomes part of the program. With his ticket, he practically buys the bars that will then be played in the concert. Next to Heidelberg, Dresden is the second location of the National Center for Tumor Diseases. “Research is in turbo mode,” says Schneider, hoping that he too can benefit from it.
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