SOIRÉE ARCADIA: ”Jerusalem – The Venice of God”

The Academy of Sciences and Literature invites you to the concert ”Jerusalem – The Venice of God” from the ”Soirée Arcadia” series on 27 January at 7 p.m. Jehuda Amichai called Jerusalem, his second home city after Würzburg, "God's Venice". This concert will feature texts by the Israeli-German poet set to music by Avner Hanani, as well as works by Ilse Weber and Paul Ben-Haim. Shai Terry (mezzo-soprano) and Adi Bar Soria (piano) will perform the songs. Thomas Sparr, author of the book Grunewald im Orient. Das deutsch-jüdische Jerusalem (Grunewald in the Orient: German-Jewish Jerusalem), will accompany the evening with a lecture.

Thomas Sparr is an author, literary scholar and publishing editor. He studied literature and philosophy in Hamburg, Marburg and Paris and worked at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and the Leo Baeck Institute there. He later headed the Jewish Publishing House and was chief editor of Siedler Verlag. Today he is editor-at-large for Suhrkamp Verlag.

Shai Terry is a multi-award-winning mezzo-soprano who completed her concert exam at the Mainz University of Music. She has performed at the Rhineland-Palatinate State Parliament and before the Federal President at a UNESCO event, among other venues. She has sung in gala concerts with various orchestras in Israel, Germany, the USA and Serbia and is a guest singer at the opera in Jerusalem.

Adi Bar Soria is an Israeli conductor and pianist. He has won numerous international competitions and regularly conducts at prestigious opera houses and concert halls, including the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Alte Oper in Frankfurt. He studied piano, song interpretation and conducting in Berlin, Jerusalem, Madrid and Frankfurt and performs worldwide as a soloist and chamber musician.

The evening is an event commemorating the Memorial Day for the Victims of National Socialism in 2026.

The concert is fully booked. You can put your name on the waiting list here.

If you enjoyed the concert, we would be grateful for a donation. The donation box is located to the right of the entrance to the Kalkhof-Rose concert hall.

Invitation flyer

Important note: There is usually a long waiting list for events held by the Academy in the Kalkhof-Rose concert hall. We therefore urge you to cancel in good time if you are unable to attend after confirming your participation. This is the only way we can adequately manage the waiting list. At the same time, we ask for your understanding that if you do not attend without giving prior notice, we will not be able to issue tickets to you in future.