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News Event Early Music Days 2026: Music and Animals

In January, Nuremberg University of Music traditionally focuses on early music. The Historical Musical Instruments Forum, organised in collaboration with the Germanisches Nationalmuseum (GNM), and the Early Music Days in 2026 will be dedicated to the theme of 'Music and Animals'.

At the opening concert of the Historical Musical Instruments Forum in the Aufseß Hall of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum, the theme of the marriage of birds is explored through chattering, grunting and cackling on the violin, viola, cello and harpsichord. The musicians create animal sounds on the violin, viola, cello and harpsichord. It's incredible what sounds can be produced with the horsehair of a bow or the quill of a harpsichord!

19:00: Concert introduction

7.30 pm: Die Vogelhochzeit: Uccellini am Bach (The Bird Wedding: Uccellini by the Brook)

Mayumi Hirasaki, Jonas Zschenderlein, Anna Brandis, violins
Christian Gooses, viola
Werner Matzke, violoncello
Christine Schornsheim, harpsichord

Tickets (GNM Ticketshop)

The Musica Antiqua concert is the result of the proven collaboration between BR, GNM and Nuremberg University of Music.

On 22 January, a symposium on 'animal' materials in historical instrument making will follow, with lectures on topics such as 'The Percussionist as Noisemaker in Baroque Opera', 'Onomatopoeic Improvisation in Concert', and 'Animals in the Music of the 17^(th) and 18^(th) Centuries', all taking place in the university's Chamber Music Hall.