Name: Brahms and his Poets
Start: 2026-03-26T19:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-03-26T21:00:00+00:00
Location: City Lit

Join City Lit Piano Students for an evening of Brahms and his Poets, curated by Professor Yekaterina Lebedeva.
About this Event

Following a sold out success of An Evening of Night Music with an award winning playwright Beth Steel in December 2024, musicians from the piano advanced workshop class under the guidance of Professor Yekaterina Lebedeva are presenting another collaborative concert.

Brahms was a great lover of German poetry. Poetry often served as a primary catalyst for his musical creation, particularly in his Lieder (songs) and choral works. Rather than just setting words to music, he analysed the rhythm and metre of texts—often by poets like Goethe, Heine, and Eichendorff—to inform his complex musical structures. He sought out poems that, above all, evoked a mood and emotions; he read them aloud repeatedly, until the form, rhythm and meter emerged. Quotes from poetry are written on his manuscripts of music works for inspiration, rhythm and structure.

While the majority of the poets Brahms set were German, the imaginative realm of that poetry reaches far beyond German borders. In this context, we will read some great German poems as well as poems written by Advanced poetry workshop writers led by City Lit tutor Ellen Cranitch.

City Lit student actor Philly Desai will read the poems to create a special evening that will transport you into 19th century Germany with its great poetry and music.